IL Science & Technology Institute STEM Challenges
The Illinois Research and Development STEM Learning Exchange is a coalition made up of over fifty cross-sector partner organizations dedicated to the recruitment, retention and education of the next generation of STEM talent. The coalition is made possible by a federally supported, state-led education initiative known as, Illinois Pathways. The Illinois Science & Technology Institute (ISTI) is the Learning Exchange’s STEM-focused nonprofit that provides programs and partnerships to connect companies with classrooms. ISTI supports schools and companies who want to impact the next generation of innovators. It is a bridge between the classroom and real world that facilitates collaboration between students and industry mentors. ISTI partners with universities and industry partners to create authentic STEM Challenges based on the real-world problems faced by the organization. They then bring high school classrooms together with the partner organizations in order to collaborate through the online Mentor Matching Engine to address the challenge.
Through our office, Evanston teachers are connected with ISTI and supported in their challenge research and design. Students from a variety of classes have participated in challenges including STEM student research, Women’s Intro to Engineering Design, Health Science Career Rotation, Statistics, and STEAM Design Thinking and Innovation. The industry partners for the challenges have come from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Argonne National Labs’ Cyber Operations, Research, and Analysis Department, and Uptake.org.
News
- STEM learning project connects ETHS students with industry leaders (ETHS, 2015)
- Evanston Township High School student attempt to address depression for state STEM competition (Daily Northwestern, 2016)
- Evanston high school students show off STEM research at Merchandise Mart (Evanston Review, 2016)