SPARK Honors for Dana Schaefer

Dana Schaefer Headshot thumbnail240708

Shoreham-Wading River High School Science Research teacher Mrs. Dana Schaefer co-wrote an abstract with another teacher from Brookhaven National Laboratory’s SPARK (Student Partnerships for Advanced Research and Knowledge) program about the work that they’ve been conducting with students at the NSLS-II. The abstract has been accepted for presentation at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston.

They’ve been asked to now create a poster for the conference, and the abstract will be published in a journal of NASA’s conference proceedings. The title of the abstract is “Using Planetary Sciences for Early Engagement and Development of the Next Generation of STEM Professionals,” and in addition to describing the scope of the SPARK program and its benefits for high school students, it briefly mentions the work that sophomore Sasha Seletskaya is involved in as lead student in analyzing the chemical composition of a chondrite meteor recovered from northwest Africa. Sasha is hoping to confirm the presence of elements within the meteor that may have either brought organic material to Earth or assisted in the creation of life through the elements that were present on primitive Earth.

Date Added: 1/31/2023

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