Model rockets soaring through the Chicago sky; model boats taking to the waters, sailing off into the distance or sinking; mousetrap cars speeding down the street; and the classic egg drop. Designs evolve as Chicago’s youth encounter and solve open-ended challenges week after week. That’s the essence of the Space Explorers program, run by the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics.
Originally conceived in 1991, the Space Explorers program initially focused on introducing Chicago Public Schools high school students to the field of cosmology and its related research. Over time, the program has broadened to different areas of science, allowing Chicago students to explore a variety of scientific interests.
In partnership with the Office of Civic Engagement, 20–30 students engage creatively with scientific principles through hands-on experimentation. The program offers seven Saturday sessions per quarter, a winter institute, and the student favorite—residential summer institute. Students get a taste of college life: staying in dorms, eating dining hall food, and experiencing campus life with friends. As students return week after week and year after year, they begin to envision themselves as scientists.
That belief stems partially from physics professor and program director Abigail Vieregg’s philosophy, which runs contrary to what students experience in high school science classrooms. “Science isn’t just something you learn in a textbook,” said Vieregg. “Science is something that you engage in doing, you engage with your hands.”
Program participants attend short lectures only to establish the fundamentals of the science that will be explored, and the remainder of their time is spent working in labs, designing prototypes, or conducting experiments. The assignments are never designed to have a single correct solution nor a detailed set of instructions. Instead, students are encouraged to achieve a goal using whatever methods they deem best. That methodology teaches students a different subconscious way of thinking.
“We really stress hands-on experiences and plenty of time for experimenting; it’s about subconsciously instilling the scientific method,” said KICP senior researcher Tyler Natoli, who advises the program and helps to develop its curriculum. “It gets them to think creatively about problems rather than just following steps.”
Ryn Grutkoski, the graduate instructor of the program, is challenged by Natoli and Vieregg to develop a unique curriculum for each year. Students can participate all four years of high school, so the same challenges can’t be repeated, meaning they always reflect the newest ideas in their respective fields.
During last year’s institute, the classic egg drop challenge was introduced as part of their exploration of how movement changes across environments. Initially, students only had to protect their egg from a single fall. However, Grutkoski introduced a twist after the initial design: the eggs had to survive multiple drops, which they alluded was similar to SpaceX’s research on re-landing rockets.
Some plans originally had crumple zones designed for single-use impact mitigation, which were quickly abandoned as participants had to reconsider their approach to creating a reusable and durable alternative. “I want them to understand that it’s okay if the second design is worse. You’ve still learned something,” said Grutkoski.
The design process invigorates student creativity, even after accomplishing the goal of surviving several drops. Students choose to continue experimenting with different materials instead of using their phones or goofing off, according to Grutkoski.
Student growth is also evident across multiple years. “At the start, only a couple of students ask questions. By the end, more and more are speaking up and presenting their work,” they said. As such, the program has produced stunning results with 100% of participants in recent years graduating high school, 94% entering four-year colleges, and 88% pursuing STEM fields.
In the coming year, Space Explorers will offer Chicago students the opportunity to engage with circuitry, electrical work, and Arduino programming—complex topics that most students aren’t introduced to until college. Grutkoski is developing experiments and challenges to be friendly to students with varying degrees of STEM background while trying to maintain the open-ended nature of the program. Potential experiments may include creating rudimentary flashlights, measuring circuits, using capacitors to demonstrate filtering, and even experimenting with voltage charges.
The Kavli Institute has also recently partnered with the newly opened SkAI Institute, which focuses its research on the intersection between AI and fields such as cosmology. Space Explorers has received funding from SkAI to expand their programming to incorporate AI concepts into the existing programming.
“With the SkAI Institute, we’re going to be thinking hard about how to incorporate AI into the program,” said Vieregg. “And we’re hoping that will resonate with students. AI is the hot thing at the moment.” She plans to add a graduate instructor who specializes in AI to accustom students to using AI tools, the underlying code, and concepts that will reflect the future of scientific research.