The Society of Teen Scientists
Our Mission
The mission of the Society of Teen Scientists is to enable teenagers with a spark of genuine curiosity to be understood, valued, and surrounded by peers who think alike. We provide the tools, programs, mentorship, and community to turn curiosity into real science.
The Society of Teen Scientists (SoTS) is a science organization for high school, middle school, and homeschool students who want to do real science and are ready for the work it takes.
Here you find a unique balance of human touch, community, connections, programs, events, publishing, and technology that enables students to develop deep knowledge, build practical skills, and work on authentic questions without known answers. Students connect with each other, educators, and mentors who believe in curiosity-driven discovery.
We provide the programs, mentorship, and peer community where curious teenagers develop into capable scientists. Research labs across multiple fields, advanced physics training, skills courses, a club network, publications, and an annual conference. We develop the scientific mindset and skills of intellectual leaders of tomorrow.
Membership is earned through a fit evaluation and maintained through demonstrated work.
Headquartered in Princeton, NJ. Members worldwide.
Talented Students Thrive in Programs Built for Them
Real science requires deep knowledge, practical skills, and the ability to work on questions nobody has answered yet.
Talent development exists in every field. In sports, talented young athletes are identified, get specialized coaching, and train differently. In science, development of the scientific mindset requires the same: programs built specifically for talented students. This includes the full spectrum from theory to authentic research opportunities.
Research Practices Designed for Teenagers
We designed research practices for teenagers from scratch - a new approach not taken before. You can find many programs that retrofit professional science onto high schoolers: the same metrics, the same pressures, the same publication chase. We went the other way. Teenage years are a rare window to pursue pure curiosity without career stakes - to follow questions because they fascinate you. We and you know original projects with bold ideas sometimes will fail, sometimes will succeed - in any case, we have mechanisms that make your work valuable and valued. Our practices protect that freedom.
Comprehensive Physics Education
Most schools teach physics through formula memorization and pattern recognition. We built the SoTS Physics Lyceum to teach the subject the way physicists actually think: reasoning from principles, deriving rather than retrieving, building intuition from the ground up. Eight semester-long courses covering the full scope of physics, from mechanics through quantum mechanics.
Any school, homeschool, any town, any country. If you are one of us - apply to join us today.