2024-2025 Student Work

Student astrophotography and photometry work from the 2024-2025 school year. You can also see them on the SPARQ website. Link in bio.

Students utilize the SPARQ Observatory telescope to capture hundreds of photos and data which they combine into stunning images and research level data.

Astrophotography:
1. Bubble Nebulae by Kaylee
2. Crab Nebulae by Yesenia
3. M104 Sombrero Galaxy by Derek
4. M101 Pinwheel Galaxy by Kevin
5. Coma Cluster by Rafael
6. NGC5634 Globular Cluster by Rex

Photometry:
7. YZ UMi and light curve by Eli
8. FK Com and light curve by Fernanda

Piner students: If you are amazed by this work and want to try it yourself, talk to Mr. Kruger about a STEM Level project.

Thank you to the students for creating this amazing work. Thank you to Mr. Kruger. Special thanks to Steve Smith for all of his hard work guiding the students through the process.

2025 STEM Symposium

The 2025 STEM Symposium at Piner High School’s SPARQ Center featured 80 STEM Level II & III presentations. The projects covered a wide variety of topics including astrophotography, health sciences internships, community internships, water quality studies, civil engineering, rocketry, and more.

Congratulations to the 2025 Judy Barcelon Excellence in STEAM Award winners Mircya Mosqueda and Kevin Le! These students embody passion, perseverance, and excellence in the area of STEAM. They also each received $500 scholarships from the SPARQ Foundation.

Photos by Mindy Breslin.

2025 Judy Barcelon Excellence in STEAM Award winners Kevin Le and Mircya Mosqueda.

2025 STEM Symposium Highlights

That’s a wrap!

That’s a wrap for our 2024-2025 STEM Cafe and Digital Planetarium events. SPARQ Digital Theater - Oasis in Space full dome film was our last event of the season. Thank you everyone for coming! We hope you enjoyed them.

Thank you, Mr. Kruger 🚀 for all your hard work organizing the events.

Watch this space for the 2025-2026 schedule. Our first STEM Cafe is scheduled for September.

Click the photo below to go to our YouTube channel.

#sparqatphs #digitalplanetarium
#stemeducation #stem #steam
#pinerhighschool
#science #scienceiscool #sciencecommunication #sciencenews

Safari West Field Trip

On Friday April 4th 47 students and chaperones went on a field trip to Safari West. It’s such a cool place. Students learned about zoology, biology, conservation and bio-ethical concepts. We were lucky to see the baby lemur playing.

To see a short video of the day go to our YouTube Channel.

We wish to give a huge thank you to the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa. The transportation was funded by a generous grant from their organization.

Photos by Mindy Breslin

collage

Safari West Highlights

SSU Field Trip

On Friday March 14, 39 Piner students went on a field trip to Sonoma State University. They got to tour the campus, visit the Nursing Lab, tour the Maker Space, and enjoy lunch in The Kitchens.

We wish to give a huge thank you to the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa. The transportation was funded by a generous grant from their organization.

Exploratorium Field Trip

On Friday February 28, 48 Piner students went on a field trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. They got to experience many science exhibits.

To see a short video of the day go to our YouTube channel.

We wish to give a huge thank you to the Active 20-30 Club of Santa Rosa. The transportation was funded by a generous grant from their organization.

Photos by Mindy Breslin.

Explore the Exploratorium.

Exploratorium field trip

Thank You Laura Sparks

The SPARQ Center at PHS thanks SRJC Astronomy & Physics Instruction, Laura Sparks for her presentation at the January 15th STEM Cafe. Ms. Sparks recently created a new class at SRJC called Life in the Universe. She shared the most interesting things she learned while preparing the class, including new missions to explore the solar system, weird life on frozen moons, and the search for habitable earth-like planets throughout the galaxy.

New Scientific Equipment donated by JH Technologies iFuSE Program

New addition to the SPARQ Center thanks to Piner High School instructor Mike Converse and John Hubacz, CEO of JH Technologies, for this donation of a research grade Nikon Eclipse 80i Fluorescence Microscope. Thanks to this new acquisition students will be able to explore the micro world including microphotography, drawings and observations, fluorescence microscopy, and research to support the STEM Certificate Program, increasing the SPARQ Center’s capability for our teachers and students. We DO science!

JH Technlogies iFuSE Program: “The purpose of our ‘iFuSE‘ program is to provide tools to those people and institutions that will teach/train our scientists of the future. The JH Technologies team will gather new, used, and broken microscopes, repair them, and distribute them to organizations that focus on educating our children in grades K -12. These microscopes will be donated to qualifying schools and teaching organizations.“

Thank you Dr. David McCuan

The SPARQ Center at PHS thanks Dr. David McCuan for his presentation at the December 4th STEM Cafe. Dr. McCuan is a professor at Sonoma State University. He is an expert in both international and national politics, international security and terrorism, state and local politics, campaigns and elections, and political behavior. Just as he did in May he gave a very interesting talk about the science behind the recent presidential election as well as providing insight into the current political landscape.

Thank You Dr. Kasey Schalich

The SPARQ Center at PHS thanks Dr. Kasey Schalich, Ph.D. for her presentation this week - “My career journey: from Piner High School to becoming a food gut microbiota interactions researcher.” She works in the Department of Food Science & Technology at UC Davis. After her presentation she shared drinks and dark chocolates containing fiber (good for our micro biomes) for the attendees to try. What was your favorite?