America needs ALL hands on deck to solve our nation’s biggest energy problems.

The Energy Department is broadening participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by exposing students to science and innovation at our National Laboratories.

We are excited to kick off My Brother’s Keeper Week at the National Labs. The Energy Department, along with seven other federal agencies, is inviting students to National Laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers in hopes of creating opportunity bridges to careers in STEM.

Last year, four of our National Labs partnered with the President’s My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative to pilot a series of “MBK at the Lab” visits. Students from the communities surrounding the labs experienced hands-on science, speed mentoring and tours of lab facilities.

This year, 11 labs will welcome students from MBK Challenge communities. We’ll be highlighting all the educational fun on our blog and social media this week.

Argonne National Lab kicked off the MBK at the Lab visits with a hands-on workshop in January. Staff at the lab worked with students on computational thinking — a way of using math that allows researchers to create models and simulations as well as catalog scientific properties and predict patterns. And last week, students visiting Idaho National Lab attended presentations on nuclear forensic chemistry, met with mentors ranging from fire-fighters to seismic researchers and toured lab facilities.

This week Los Alamos, Sandia, Oak Ridge, Brookhaven, Lawrence Livermore, the National Energy Technology Lab, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and Princeton Plasma Physics lab will all be hosting local groups of students and giving presentations that range from cryogenics experiments to simulating particle collisions to giving a tour of a 3D-printed house. Fermilab and PNNL will also be hosting MBK visits later this spring.