A third grader from South Side Elementary School explores the Beckman Atrium's red spinning chairs on his visit to the institute.

Despite the research conducted throughout the building, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology’s atrium is usually described as calm. Every so often, excitement arrives in the form of elementary school students, spinning in the red tilting chairs and brainstorming ways to improve the space. Could it fit a ball pit? A 3D printer room? What about even more spinning chairs?

These students are part of a 2-year-long partnership between Beckman and Champaign's South Side Elementary School. During their visits, they connect with Beckman community members, learn about science and explore future careers.

“We have a plethora of resources at the University of Illinois, and then we have the school district and the community,” said Anna Blacker, an instructional coach at South Side. “It’s important to have outreach both ways, make connections with each other and let the students see the different pathways their lives could take depending on their interests.” Anna Blacker, instructional coach at South Side Elementary

Blacker came up with this partnership during a visit to Beckman through the Office of Public Engagement's iExplore program, where Unit 4 school district teachers visit campus organizations. She reached out to Lexie Kesler, Beckman’s outreach specialist, and together the two began building a schedule and curriculum for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Each grade visits Beckman once during the school year. The visits complement what the students are already learning in their classes.

Kindergarteners learning about emotions and empathy took a trip to Beckman's (dis)Ability Design Studio. Fourth graders studying inventions interviewed inventors and patent experts across campus, and third graders investigating the human body worked with members of the Neurocognitive Health Behavior Lab to measure the carotenoids from fruits and vegetables in their skin.

Lexie Kesler, outreach specialist at Beckman“Anna knows the curriculum side and what teachers are teaching. I figure out groups at Beckman who are doing related research, and we work those together,” Kesler said.

As part of each field trip, students and Beckman community members learn about and connect with each other over lunch. Do all scientists wear lab coats? Might a lab director and a second grader have the same favorite sports team?

“We’re trying to emphasize the idea of, ‘These are your neighbors!’ from both sides,” Kesler said. “There have been good conversations with the kids, but I’ve also heard a lot of parent chaperones who have had conversations with researchers or staff members here. It’s just that idea of bridging campus and community.”

She notes that researchers who usually would not interact are now volunteering together, sparking discussions about potential collaborations.

In addition to each grade visiting Beckman, the fifth-grade students are collecting recyclable plastics to melt down into colored tiles and assemble into two mosaics, one to display in their school and one to hang at Beckman.

Eighteen students are leading the mosaic project in subgroups related to their interests. For example, the group focused on teaching will have an exhibit at this year’s Beckman Institute Open House. They will collaborate with another group of research-minded students to design an academic-style poster to showcase their project.

By exposing students to adults with a variety of jobs, from materials scientists to entomologists to communicators, Blacker and Kesler hope to show students career possibilities that relate to their interests. Blacker described how one group of fifth graders, when talking to Beckman's new media design coordinator Lindy Carlisle, connected their enthusiasm for art to a potential career in graphic design.

“They’ve never learned what a graphic designer does, or used that vocabulary,” Blacker said, “so it’s really powerful.”

While visiting Beckman, students dressed up in lab coats for a photo opportunity.

Feedback from teachers, researchers and students is positive. Blacker and Kesler note that the field trips’ activities are structured around statewide standards, so they may eventually be scalable into pre-packaged lessons that could be conducted at the institute or in schools that are further away.

“A lot of times, STEM outreach focuses on middle school and high school, but there’s a lot of research showing that’s almost too late,” Kesler said. “So we’re trying to catch them earlier and show them that they’re already doing things that scientists do. Scientists observe. What does a 5-year-old do to learn? They observe the world around them. By giving them these experiences earlier, our hope is that we can keep that curiosity and sense of wonder.”