K-12
As the state research university in the Southern Illinois region, SIU has an obligation to provide as much support as possible during this important transition period to our local school districts. The structure and programs of the STEM Education Research Center will correspond to the primary areas of interest: K-12, undergraduate, and graduate STEM education. The Center also focus on coordinating the existing programs already implemented at SIU, many of which reside in the College of Science and the College of Education.
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Activities & Opportunities
Engineering Day
As part of the NSPE National Engineer's Week, SIU's College of Engineering and its affiliated registered student organizations sponsor the annual Engineering Day. The event runs throughout the day at various locations in the College of Engineering building.
Come join the fun as engineers and technicians bring engineering to life through interactive presentations filled with hands-on activities, videos, and compelling messages about engineering. Participating students will develop problem solving skills essential to the profession of Engineering. All high school and middle school students are welcome to attend.
For more information, please contact Jennifer Langin by email at jlangin@siu.edu.
Expanding Your Horizons (EYH)
EYH is a fun-filled, one day conference held at the SIU campus in the fall, for girls in grades 5 through 9 and their parents and teachers. Students each choose three workshops from an exciting array of science and math topics.
The workshops are designed to increase the interest of young women in math and science through positive, hands-on experience.
Please click here for more information.
Little Egypt Math Week
Little Egypt Math Week, held each March at the SIU campus, is an annual celebration of mathematics for high school students in our region. The week starts off with a bang, with the Math Field Day competition (see below). There is also the Math Video Challenge, open to any high school math club or student who wishes to participate. The math department will post a problem on their Facebook page during the week before Math Field Day. The first math club or student that posts a video solving the puzzle wins a cash prize!
Sophomores and Juniors who participate in Math Field Day are also invited to a reception with games, prizes, and an opportunity to find out more about the STEM programs, scholarships and undergraduate research available at SIU.
Math Field Day
The High School Mathematics Field Day competition is the highlight of Little Egypt Math Week. For more than 50 years, over 1,000 students from over 50 schools have competed for the Math Field Day prizes.
Students compete in a two-hour multiple choice, computer graded exam. Schools are placed in one of three divisions, determined by school size. Awards are given for the winning team in each grade level and division, and the winning school in each division receives a trophy.
Each school is able to enter up to 32 students with no more than 8 from any one of grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. Please visit the Math Field Day website for registration and other information.
Science Fair
The Illinois Junior Academy of Science(IJAS) Science Fair provides students with an excellent opportunity to learn about and engage in the scientific process, and to present their science posters and papers to judging teams and to other participants and visitors. The Science Fair is not a competition among students or schools. Each poster or paper is independently judged against a set of objective scientific criteria.
There are eighteen different project categories from Aerospace to Behavioral Science to Health Science to Zoology. Over 150 faculty and grad students volunteer as judges from the colleges of Education, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Science, and School of Medicine.
Illinois Junior Science & Humanities Symposium (IJSHS)
The IJSHS is a regional competition conducted at the SIU campus each Spring semester, under the auspices of the national Junior Science and Humanities Symposia program.
The competition is designed to challenge and engage high school students in science, technology, science and engineering fields. Individual students compete for scholarships and recognition by submitting the results of their original research for either the oral presentation or the poster session.
Students attending the regional symposium will be given the opportunity to visit working labs on the SIU campus, within several different disciplines, and to network with faculty and peers who share their love of science.
For more information on dates, guidelines and participation, please visit the IJSHS website.
Worldwide Youth in Science & Engineering (WYSE) -Academic Challenge
The WYSE Academic Challenge is a competitive series of tests created and administered by Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering and offered to high school students in Illinois and Missouri. The tests are now offered by more than 50 community colleges and universities and are designed to motivate talented high school students to greater achievement.
Test material is drawn from senior high school and freshman level college curricula and include biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering graphics, English, math and physics. Tests of increasing levels of difficulty are given at the regional, sectional and state finals. Students compete as individuals or as part of a high school team; they have 40 minutes to complete multiple-choice tests that range in length from 30 questions (computer science) to 100 questions (English).
Please contact John Brajkovich at john@engr.siu.edu
High School Concurrent Enrollment
SIU's High School Concurrent Enrollment program permits high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors to enroll at SIU for regular college credit. The application procedure is similar to that required for SIU freshmen. Submit a completed undergraduate admission application and a copy of your official high school transcript. Applicants must have achieved a B grade point average in high school and have a letter of recommendation from their high school principal. Test scores are not required. The University courses to be taken in this program should be in subject areas in which a high school does not offer courses or in subject areas in which the student has completed all of the courses the high school can offer.
Public Astronomy Observations
On clear nights you can see the rings of Saturn! The SIU Physics Department holds several night sky observations per year on the observation deck of the Neckers building. Special daytime solar and other astronomical events may also be observed either on campus, of the telescopes may be brought to you!
For contact information and observation dates, please go to public astronomy observations.
STEM Summer Camps
Continuing Education and Outreach coordinates STEM-inspired summer camps for Middle and High School students in architecture, aviation, engineering, mathematics and science, together with Lego Engineering camps for K-5 students.
Touch of Nature Environmental Education
Touch of Nature, located eight miles southeast of the SIU Campus, is a 3,100 acre facility bordered by a 700 acre lake, Giant City State Park, the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Reguge and the Shawnee National Forest, providing over 300,000 acres of public lands for observation and study.
Programs are offered to meet the specific needs of interested groups of all ages and include natural resource education, water and land management, and the complexities of the human relationship to the environmant. For more information, please go to Touch of Nature's website.