Society of Teen Scientists · Authentic Research Partners
Our nonprofit programs
These programs help students, educators, independent researchers, and schools take part in serious scientific work, from middle school to professional R&D.
What our nonprofit programs do
- Expand access to deep science education and authentic research experiences.
- Create serious research opportunities for teenagers and adults outside traditional academic pipelines.
- Build public-interest research infrastructure that supports transparency, reproducibility, and open access to trusted research records.
Choose where to fund
The programs below are operated as nonprofit educational and public-interest activities under fiscal sponsorship through NOPI INC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Together they support scientists at every stage, from a first spark in middle school to professional R&D.
The university and adult programs, the ARP IPT Team and the ARP Research Residency, run under Authentic Research Partners at arpconnect.com. Select a stage to highlight the programs that serve it.
Deep Physics Access Programs
Middle school is the one physics class most American students ever take, and it is seldom taught by a physics specialist. This program brings the Deep Physics methodology into public middle schools as in-school and after-school programs, taught by expert physicists.
Society of Teen ScientistsSCIENCE OR ELSE
An interdisciplinary science conference where teenagers present original research through posters and talks, meet scientists from academia and industry, and take part in creative science contests. No membership required.
Society of Teen ScientistsSoTS Authentic Research Residency
A free two-semester program. Small teams of experienced high-school researchers work on open problems contributed by external partners, with support from a professional Research Guide. Admission is selective.
Society of Teen ScientistsPartial Scholarships
Partial scholarships toward the cost of authentic research education programs for students with financial need. Awards are separate from program admission and are subject to available donated funds.
Society of Teen ScientistsARP IPT Team
A multi-campus US team for the International Physicists' Tournament, the university-level physics world cup. Free for bachelor's and master's students from any US university.
Authentic Research PartnersARP Research Residency
R&D training run like a small consulting team. Six months on a real partner problem, open to every career stage, free for every admitted Resident.
Authentic Research PartnersWe Help Others Teach
Research-methodology consulting, Research Guide training, and program design for schools, community colleges, public universities, and nonprofit education organizations building research programs of their own. We also help bring AI into science education, including HumanDevTech tools such as our AI Research Mentor.
Authentic Research PartnersWe Build Research Infrastructure
Free, open, or public-interest tools that help researchers document progress, verify claims, and keep transparent records of scientific work. Tools include SciRecord registry layers, sciwrite-lint, and scicode-lint.
Gifts are made through NOPI, a 501(c)(3), and may be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. To direct your gift to specific programs, name them in the gift note or email team@teenscientists.org. A directed gift supports that program as a whole.
The published record
The methodology and tools behind these programs are openly published:
- The Research Guide: From Informal Role to Profession (arXiv, 2026)
- From EdTech to HumanDevTech (EdArXiv, 2026)
- Visible, Trackable, Forkable: Opening the Process of Science (arXiv, 2026)
- sciwrite-lint: Verification Infrastructure for the Age of Science Vibe-Writing (arXiv, 2026)
- scicode-lint: Detecting Methodology Bugs in Scientific Python Code with LLM-Generated Patterns (arXiv, 2026)
- Artificial Intelligence for Scientific Research: Authentic Research Education Framework (arXiv, 2022)
- Computer simulations combined with experiments for calculus-based physics laboratory course (arXiv, 2018)
How we are organized
These nonprofit programs operate under fiscal sponsorship through NOPI INC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Gifts that support these programs may be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Donations and nonprofit program revenue support student participation, payments to instructors and Research Guides, educational programming, conference operations, materials, public-interest research infrastructure, and access for those who could not otherwise take part.
Authentic Research Partners is fiscally sponsored by the Nonprofit Organization for Philanthropic Initiatives, a program of NOPI INC, a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation and 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 81-5089505. Learn more at https://thenopi.org.