Outreach Opportunity - High School Science Symposium

Hello Campus Partners,

The UF Center for Precollegiate Education and Training (CPET) will be a high school STEM Symposium on February 1-3, 2026, at the University of Florida. This three-day science conference provides opportunities for high school students and their teachers to visit UF research facilities and to interact with prominent scientists and engineers. Students present their original research in both non-competitive and competitive sessions. We are currently recruiting faculty, post docs, grad students, and qualified scientists/practitioners to serve as Outreach Partners for a High School STEM Symposium. We need assistance as follows:

• (Critical Need) Submission Reviews: December 22nd, 2025 - January 9th, 2026. We need UF researchers to assist with reviewing the submissions for the competition. The submission consists of an abstract and a research paper. Each reviewer will receive ~10 submissions in their general area of expertise and a rubric for scoring them. We will then rank the submissions in each subject area based on the reviewer scores to determine invitations. Our goal is for each submission to receive at least 3 reviews, so we expect we will need at least 45 reviewers! We welcome grad students, research staff, postdocs, or faculty for this! We provide a certificate of participation as a reviewer for CVs!
• Poster Session Evaluator: Monday - February 2nd, 2026 – Time TBA (afternoon or early evening). Meet with students presenting their research in poster format. Each evaluator will provide feedback for 5-7 posters. Great opportunity for graduate students!
• Lab Tours: Tuesday - February 3rd, 2026 - Morning (9:15 - 11:45 AM) A unique opportunity for students attending the STEM Symposium. Student groups will visit research labs on campus and talk with UF scientists. We are looking for labs that would be willing to have groups of 8-10 students visit for 30 minutes to see their lab or facilities and learn about the research they do! This is a great opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to communicate their science! If you can only commit to a portion of the time but still want to be involved, please still sign up!

I ask your assistance in sharing this announcement with your colleagues. Please feel free to contact the Symposium Director, Danae Perry, with any questions (d.perry@ufl.edu).

 Additional information (such as judging rubric, competition papers, and parking permit requests) will be sent at a later time.  

To sign up for any of the above events or opportunities, kindly fill out this google form: High School Florida STEM Symposium Outreach Opportunities Sign-Up