Last weekend, four IIT Boeing Scholars had the honor of representing their communities and schools at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science, a state-level science exposition, held at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign! A thousand students from public and private high schools participated, having already bested thousands of other high-achieving students at regional and local science fairs.

Even among this stiff competition, Scholars won big! Kathrin Kajderowicz, a junior at Lane Tech High School, received the Gold Award in the category of Behavioral Science for her project and paper, “Classical Music Effect on Vivid Memory.” Senior Aaron Litoff, of Lincoln Park High School, won Gold in Chemistry for his project and paper, “Alginate Microbeads for Type 1 Diabetes.” Taft High School junior Patrice Pirpiris received the Gold Award in the category of Electronics for “Catching More Rays!” Also representing Taft was junior Deanna Pirpiris, who won Gold for “Too Hot to Handle!”—before being awarded the even rarer honor of Best in Category for Electronics!

Both Patrice’s and Deanna’s projects involved testing solar cell technology and were extensions of solar energy experiments they conducted as participants in Columbia College’s Junior Research Scientist Program.

Congratulations to these amazing young scientists for receiving highest honors for the fruits of their months of labor, fueled by intellectual curiosity and the joy of scientific inquiry! As individuals and a group you have made us so proud. Thank you for inspiring us today—and we look forward to witnessing your contributions to the world of science tomorrow!

(Or…soon. No pressure.)

 

Marya Spont
Program Director

 

Recently, eight IIT Boeing Scholars woke up bright and early to join students from the University of Chicago’s Collegiate Scholars Program and Wendell Phillips Academy High School, as well as hundreds of others, for Argonne National Laboratory’s 25th annual Science Careers in Search of Women Conference! Located just outside Chicago, Argonne is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest national laboratories for scientific and engineering research, where more than 1,250 scientists and engineers aim to solve the nation’s  most important challenges in energy, the environment and national security.

 

Students had lunch with STEM professionals, at which time they learned about their individual paths to Argonne, and then explored exhibits and booths to learn about various careers and topics of interest. One exhibit hooked up a stationary bike to a board to let students experience firsthand exactly how much energy had to be generated in order to light different kinds of light bulbs, such as incandescent, fluorescent, and LED. Another booth demonstrated the kinds of techniques used in forensic science (think CSI: Chicago!). Still others gave students information about different careers in STEM fields through organizations as varied as the FBI and CVS.

 

The day concluded in the main auditorium with an award for and speech by one of the many female scientists at Argonne who have worked hard year after year to put together this conference for young women. Our Scholars went home excited about the cutting-edge technology they’d seen and inspired about their futures as scientists!

Thank you to everyone at Argonne for inviting our students to this wonderful conference!

 

Connie Ma
Program Coordinator

Yesterday after school, IIT Boeing Scholars were excited and fortunate to learn about the University of Chicago’s brand new Institute for Molecular Engineering — and to meet its esteemed Director, Dr. Matthew Tirrell!

The Institute for Molecular Engineering conducts research at the intersection of chemical, electrical, mechanical, and biological engineering as well as materials, biological, and physical sciences. The Institute’s work exploring innovative technologies in nanoscale manipulation and design at a molecular scale has the potential for societal impact in such areas as energy, health care, and the environment — in the words of Dr. Tirrell, it “attacks social problems from a technological viewpoint.”

After being welcomed by Dr. Tirrell, we headed to the sub-basement to tour faculty and graduate student labs. As Dr. Tirrell explained, many of the sensitive experiments and equipment worked better when conducted underground, thanks to less interference and fewer vibrations. Scholars spoke to post-docs, graduate students, and professors, and were introduced to tools used to capture and manipulate matter at the atomic level. For instance, we were shown how high-speed cameras capture fluids breaking within a vacuum! Scholars also saw electron microscopes and atomic force microscopes that, through innovative technology, can magnify a million times, allowing us to see the texture of a stalk of grass or the 600-700 eyes that make up the single eye of a fruit fly.

After the tour, Scholars enjoyed pizza and a conversation with Dr. Tirrell regarding paths toward working in molecular engineering and the sciences.

A huge thank you to Dr. Tirrell and Ms. Diana Morgan at the Institute of Molecular Engineering for making this amazing learning experience possible! We are glad they invited us back for next year…

 

Connie Ma
Program Coordinator

Hello, Scholars!

My name is Connie Ma, and I am proud and excited to join the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy team as the Program Coordinator! Before coming to IIT, I worked at the Chinese American Service League (CASL), a social service agency in Chinatown, as Assistant to the President in external relations and development. Many of you have actually already met me, either through my work at CASL or because I was part of the “young professionals” Q&A panel during last summer’s program. Additionally, I volunteered with the Academy in the fall, helping Leadership Grant Project group ROOTS develop their project plan and budget (see more here). I also have a background in working and volunteering with non-profit organizations, tutoring in the Chicago Public Schools, and teaching varied subjects such as swing dancing and Chinese language and culture.

My responsibilities with the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy will include working with the Program Director in outreach, program development, and events management; recruiting and coordinating mentors and volunteers; and forging community partnerships. I’m excited about helping to develop this year’s program, and of course to meet and learn from the IIT Boeing Scholars themselves. Feel free to contact me at yma24@iit.edu to introduce yourself or if I can be of assistance in any way!

Great to meet everyone!

Connie Ma
Program Coordinator

Program Director Marya Spont visited Indianapolis last week to share the ideas behind the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy as part of the National Science Teacher Association‘s “STEMing Across Borders: An International Perspective on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” research poster session. The session included presentations by educators from around the world — including from Chile, China, South Africa, and Tunisia, as well as from IIT’s Math and Science Education Department — who actively impart the global dimensions of science to their students.

Our poster, entitled “Connecting Local and Global STEM Issues for High-Achieving Urban Teens,” described how the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy uses constituents’ interests in local issues as entry-points for addressing global problems (in Summer 2011, related to “Cities of the Future”) and to inspire STEM study. It also demonstrated strategies for developing STEM programming that is relevant and attractive to a broadly diverse group of students, as well as the successes and challenges experienced in year one.

On Monday, Marshall Brown, professor of urban planning and design in IIT’s College of Architecture, welcomed IIT Boeing Scholars for a behind-the-scenes look at his “New Projects” studio!

Brown’s hybrid urbanism studio, research center, and exhibition space is located just south of IIT in the former home of the Overton Hygienic Company, once one of the nation’s foremost producers of African-American cosmetics. In addition to giving a tour of the space, Professor Brown discussed his professional work and influences and shared candid advice about college and graduate school.

Marshall Brown previously addressed Scholars during the Summer 2011 program — as part of our Issues Forum on “Space, Place, and the Built Environment” — and we are so appreciative to have had the opportunity to learn from him again! Special thanks to the Chicago Humanities Festival, who organized this studio visit just for us.

 

Have you ever wanted to take apart a hair dryer, VCR, or household appliance, just to see how it works — or to learn more about our society?

On Saturday, IIT Boeing Scholars had the opportunity to visit Northwestern University to do just this, thanks to Dr. David Gatchell (Director of the MaDE Program and faculty in the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern, as well as former Faculty Advisor for the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy), who led them through an amazing “Product Archaeology” workshop!

 

 

Product archaeology is “the process of reconstructing the lifecycle of a product (the customer requirements, design specifications, and manufacturing processes used to produce it) to understand the decisions that led to its development” (learn more at productarchaeology.org).

Over the course of this 4-hour workshop, students “dissected” various objects — slide and film projectors from the 1950s, and a hair dryer, VCR, humidifier, and sandwich-maker from the modern day — not only to better understand how the devices work but also to uncover information about the sociological conditions represented by those artifacts/products.

 

 

Before departing Northwestern, students also had the opportunity to tour part of the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center and meet graduate students studying product development and manufacturing. All-in-all, an exciting day of exploration in (reverse) engineering!

 

Thank you to everyone who submitted an application to the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy for the 2012-13 year. Over the past few weeks, our selection committee spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the entire cohort of applicants, which included approximately 400 students from 140 Chicago-area high schools. The caliber of applicants significantly exceeded what were already high expectations. We had many difficult decisions to make, since—in the end—we will only be able to offer this opportunity to 100 total students.

By now, each applicant should have received an email from us, notifying them of whether they are invited as a finalist to interview for a position in the program. If a student has applied yet not received an email from us, they should contact Marya Spont, Program Director, at 312.567.5193 or spont@iit.edu, as soon as possible.

Students still in search of a summer learning opportunity for this year may wish to review summer.iit.edu and other universities’ websites, as well as online databases such as the Institute for Broadening Participation’s STEM Program Search and Project Exploration’s Discover Your Summer resource.

IIT Boeing Scholars were invited to represent the voice of youth at last night’s “Beyond These Times: The Changing World,” with Dr. Kieran Egan, professor at Simon Fraser University and founder and director of the Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG). See a clip of Dr. Egan speaking here.

 

The “Beyond These Times” series is organized by three Chicago landmark nonprofit organizations — Chicago Shakespeare Theater, National Louis University, and the Golden Apple Foundation — that are deeply concerned with the future of education.

For these events, prominent authors and visionaries join early career educators for a close look at the challenge and promise of a future we can only begin to imagine. Questions at the core of each discussion include: What should schools of the future look like? How should the role of the educator change? What will be the impact of technology? What do we need to be doing today to prepare our teachers and our children for a very different tomorrow?

 

 

Our Scholars did such an amazing job as the “featured” high school students, they have been invited back for the “Beyond These Times: The Changing Mind” event on March 26!

 

 

On Saturday, Scholars attended the 28th Annual Engineers Week Expo, held at IIT’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus in Wheaton. We started the day by joining IIT faculty, staff, and alumni for a special continental breakfast; attended a presentation on high-rise building design by Larry C. Novak, lead structural engineer on the the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building!); and then explored the Expo’s numerous activities and presentations!

 

 

Earlier in February, Dr. Elisabeth (Liz) Moyer, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport at the University of Chicago, and post-doctoral student and Outreach Coordinator Dr. Meghan Vincent offered IIT Boeing Scholars, UChicago’s Collegiate Scholars, and other outstanding high school students “A Reality Check on Alternative Energy” — an afternoon of intellectual challenges, intuitive calculations, and a whole lot of perspective on energy options for the years to come!

 

 

Students learned about how our modern industrial lives were made possible only by fossil fuel use and considered questions like “Will it be possible in the future to support a bigger, richer population without fossil fuels — which will definitely run out someday?” A series of mental and physical exercises helped students make sense of which renewable energy options (wind, hydro, biofuel, solar) have the greatest promise of supporting humankind.

“Beyond these times,” as it were…

 

 

Many thanks to all of the amazing people who helped make our February programming possible — including the above, our Job Shadow Day, and still other events — and we look forward to seeing our Scholars again at events in March! (Don’t forget to RSVP!)

As part of our first-ever Job Shadow Day, 37 IIT Boeing Scholars spent their Presidents’ Day exploring careers at 11 different sites!

Many thanks to our amazing hosts, each of which took their own unique approach to the event: Boeing Company, Chicago International Charter Schools, Institute for Food Safety and Health (IIT), kCura Corporation, Landon Bone Baker Architects, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Motorola Solutions, Narrative Science, Navistar, Inc., Transco Products, Inc., and University of Chicago (various labs). Read descriptions of each opportunity offered here, and see the post below for photos of Scholars in action!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all of our wonderful hosts for taking time out of their busy schedules to share their work with us! Contact spont@iit.edu if you are interested in hosting Scholars for a future job shadow opportunity.