Education Commons^™

Field Trip Partnerships: Student-To-Student Mentoring, Aziza Darwish, Robyn Lee-Diaz

Publications & Research

Children running wild enjoying a day of freedom, exhausted chaperones, budget-conscious, hand-wringing administrators back at school -- all of these conjure troubling images for educators about field trips. These are far from the enjoyable, state-of-the-art, educational experiences that field trips could be for today's teachers and students.

For several years, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) has had longstanding partnerships with school districts throughout the state which have involved designing STEM field trip experiences that serve middle school educators and students. These field trips to the Academy are led by IMSA high school students who are enrolled in the …

Experiential Learning At The Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Michelle Kolar, Dora Phillips, Christopher G. Kolar

Publications & Research

“Am I ever going to use this in the real world?” is a common question in science and math middle school and high school classrooms. Students taught using experiential learning techniques, however, already know the answer. They learn content by solving real world problems through hands-on activities. In other words, they learn science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) the same way professionals do every day—by doing, sharing, and improving. Experiential learning provides the promise that the U.S. can reverse the trend of students losing interest in STEM subjects during middle school and create life-long learners who apply the scientific thought …

Scientists In The Classroom, Kent Schielke, Kathy Schmidt, Judith A. Scheppler

Publications & Research

Being an educator in the twenty-first century is exciting, stimulating, fun, challenging, and dynamic - with a great emphasis on the challenging and dynamic. The scope and depth of the materials we teach, or can teach, to our students is overwhelming and increasing exponentially every year. The list of challenges for science educators is formidable. We have found that one logical piece of the puzzle to help address these challenges is for educators to invite practicing and real-world researchers, engineers, doctors, business owners, and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) professionals into the classroom, or take students on field trips …

An Exploration Of The Factors That Motivate Gifted And Talented Black Males To Engage In Science, Technology, Engineering And Mathematics In A Gifted, Residential Community, Adrienne L. Coleman

Publications & Research

This study was an exploration of the factors that motivated gifted and talented Black males to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The specific problem addressed was the lack of motivation among Black males to become gifted and talented learners engaged in STEM. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the factors that motivate gifted and talented Black males to engage in STEM at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), a residential academy for gifted/talented students. Qualitative methodology was used to interview focus groups of 20 gifted and talented Black males who currently attended IMSA …

2014 Imsaloquium, Student Investigation Showcase, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMSAloquium Event Booklets

"The ability to work with professionals is a life-changing experience for our students. Working with world-class scholars and advisors, students have contributed to advances in a variety of fields from science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to the performing arts and history."

Case Study Of A Successful Educational Partnership: University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign And The Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy, Dave Devol

Faculty Publications & Research

This article describes partnerships between an NCSSSMST member institution and a research university and the use of student-generated survey data as a means of both professional self-reflection and asking further questions. As a chemist, I have been trained to write in the style of scientists, and in fact I teach a course at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy on the methods of science and scientific writing. This article is intentionally not written in a scientific style; rather is written to convey a story of how a partnership between institutions naturally progressed into my current area of research into motivational …

Understanding The Neuronal Controls Behind Heart Rate And Respiration, Sowmya Anjur

Faculty Publications & Research

Students in the course Physiology and Disease at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy learn physiology by designing, executing and evaluating their own experiments based on evidence. This semester, students designed laboratory experiments that involved the use of the same type of exercise to increase both heart rate and respiration rate. Students will collect quantitative data from these experiments to make conclusions regarding the correlation of heart rate and respiration rate. This will be followed by student research into the neuronal controls in the brain that were responsible for these correlations.

Increasing Interest Of Young Women In Engineering, Diane Hinterlong, Branson Lawrence, Purva Devol

Publications & Research

The internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) develops creative, ethical leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a teaching and learning laboratory created by the State of Illinois, IMSA enrolls academically talented Illinois students in grades 10 through 12 in its advanced, residential college preparatory program. IMSA also serves thousands of educators and students in Illinois and beyond through innovative instructional programs that foster imagination and inquiry. IMSA also advances education through research, groundbreaking ventures and strategic partnerships.

The Value Of Creating An Innovation Talent Pipeline, Britta Mckenna

Publications & Research

Investing in the innovation pipeline today translates to Illinois business tomorrow. Somewhere between the rise of “STEM” and “staying globally competitive” in a time after Millennials is Generation Z. Gen Z digital natives are now making their way to and through primary and secondary education and we need to be ready to nurture the emerging talents of these and other future innovators. This is particularly important in Illinois where developing – and retaining – top talent will be a key driver of the state’s knowledge-based economy. There is hard work ahead reimagining what education should look like to support this …

Developing Transfer Skills In A Biochemistry Class, Jeong V. Choe

Faculty Publications & Research

Students seem to struggle with transferring prior knowledge if the new problem they are given is in a different form from the way they learned the material. The process of transfer can be identified by four components: 1) recognizing the similarity between the old and new contexts; 2) identifying the potential of a certain skill or concept that has worked in the past, to give solutions to new problematic situations; 3) mental testing of the application of the potential solution; and 4) an attempt to apply the skill or concept to a new context (Georghiades 2000). These four components are …

The Imsa© Promise: Diverse Perspectives Do Enrich Understanding!, Barb J. Miller, Adrienne Coleman

Publications & Research

For years we have grappled with the effects of the Achievement Gap, which has been defined by: (a) the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2011) as the “observed, persistent disparity of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity and gender; (b) The National Education Association (2013) as differences between the scores of students with different backgrounds (ethnic, racial, gender, disability, and income) are evident on large-scale standardized tests, adding that test score gaps often lead to longer-term gaps, including high school and college completion and the kinds of jobs students …

The Imsa© Promise: Igniting And Nurturing Diverse Stem Talent, Adrienne Coleman, Barb J. Miller

Publications & Research

“Your PROMISE Program has been the life-line to extend and enhance the knowledge base for these students…by providing them with the time to develop seemingly outlandish ideas or tease their brains with the “what if” possibilities…you are making such a huge difference in the lives of these inner city youth who, otherwise, would not be privy to this level of academic exposure until much later on in their academic pursuits” (McNeal, 2013).

What educator writes such impassioned comments about an enrichment program designed to ignite and nurture talented underrepresented and underserved students?

2014 Viewbook, Office Of Admissions

Viewbook

Established by the State of Illinois to develop talent and leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy has become an internationally recognized, world-class powerhouse for inspiring, challenging and nurturing talented students who use their exceptional abilities to improve people's lives. IMSA's advanced residential college preparatory program enables academically talented Illinois students in grades 10 through 12 to reach extraordinary levels of achievement.