Robots, Coding, and Virtual Reality: Chicago Public Schools Celebrate National STEM Day With a Week of Hands-on Play

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is wrapping up a week of activities leading to today - National STEM Day - a designation that celebrates science, technology, engineering, and math. CPS events began on Monday, November 4 and were hosted at nearly a dozen school locations across the city throughout the week, with students participating in hands-on “playgrounds,” essentially pop-up spaces featuring virtual reality, screen-free robots, coding, and problem-solving projects. The goal is to encourage students to tap into and more fully develop their creativity, ingenuity, storytelling, and imagination.

The STE(A)M events – which incorporate arts-focused activities in addition to STEM – were rotated throughout the week at the District’s eight STEM & STEAM Exemplary Demonstration sites: Charles W. Earle STEM Elementary School, Irene C. Hernandez STEM Middle School for the Advancement of Science, Evergreen STEAM Academy Middle School, Salmon P. Chase STEAM Elementary School, Ferdinand Peck STEM Elementary School, Philip D. Armour STEM Elementary School, John T. McCutcheon STEAM Elementary School, and Mary Gage Peterson STEAM Elementary School. Workshops focused on artificial intelligence literacy were also held for middle school students this week at Chalmers STEAM Elementary School and James Weldon Johnson STEAM Elementary School in North Lawndale.

“We are extremely fortunate as a District to have the resources and, importantly, the enthusiasm of eager learners and skilled educators to really celebrate and uphold STEAM education,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. “A STEAM-focused environment is not only important for our students’ future, it is also fun and brings joy to learning. It inspires us to be creative, solve problems and find empowerment through knowledge and education.”

The first “playground” was held earlier this week at Peterson Elementary, where students set down coded tiles to teach patterned movements to a robot while at another section, kids used their feet to solve math problems on a large touch screen projected onto the floor.

Audible gasps came from the table where students used a stylus pen to pull out a 3-dimensional hologram of a beating human heart from a computer screen. Helen Trinter, a 7th grader at Peterson, moved her face close to the organ, feeling the pulse of the heart through the stylus pen she held, as it measured and matched her own heart rate. “Oh my lord,” she said.

Helen’s mother, Megan Trinter, watched and her own eyes widened with her daughter’s.

“This is the way the world is going. All things feel like they are headed for STEM,” Trinter said, noting that she has seen all four of her children tap into these skills as they progressed along their academic journeys into college. “Your kids don’t need to want to be a scientist or be good at engineering or math to benefit from this. They’ll find that it broadens horizons in a way that even we as parents don’t grasp.”

Helen said her peer group is just as interested in STE(A)M activities as she is, adding, “We’re learning new things and how to code and program. It’s a way to have fun and to get your brain thinking at the same time.”

The school’s goal is to provide equitable opportunities for all students because “sometimes what kids need is just exposure to get their imaginations going and to see their futures differently,” said Peterson Principal Yalil Nieves. “The number of jobs that require a STEAM background will continue to increase and we know that access to these pathways continue to be very limited for minority children.”

The playground events continue at schools Friday, including an afternoon session at McCutcheon STEAM Elementary School. Beyond National STEM Day, CPS’ STEM Department helps to coordinate a number of ongoing events throughout the year to help students develop new skills and learn about career pathways. Examples of these include:

• A partnership with DePaul University to host a School of Computing Career Exploration Day to inform high school seniors about degree pathways on November 8.
• CPS’ Computer Science High School Team is gearing up to launch the First Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Season. The season, which kicks off on November 9, features an underwater theme this year with hands-on experience building and programming robots to tackle unique challenges. The matches will bring together bright minds, technical skills, and creative solutions as students compete, collaborate, and showcase their hard work in the world of robotics.
• Computer Science Chi-Tech Discovery Day Field Trips are held throughout the year in coordination with University of Illinois' Discovery Partners Institute to connect students with professionals from top companies like Amazon Web Services and Google to gain insights into exciting tech careers. During these events, students also participate in hands-on design-thinking workshops led by AWS professionals to enhance their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

“National STEM Day is another chance for us to draw more awareness around the importance of this curriculum, but the work is really happening year round,” said Kelli Easterly, Executive Director of CPS’ STEM Department. “We have high quality schools, principals, teachers, and STE(A)M coordinators who have put together an impressive amount of resources to set up our students for success. The goal is to create an environment where our young learners have the curiosity to ask new and interesting questions about our world and, at the same time, have the tools and skills to help find the answers.”

The District has and continues to invest heavily in STEM and STEAM focused curriculum and programs. CPS remains the only school district in the nation that requires all students to take a computer science course before high school graduation. Additionally, 29 percent of CPS eighth graders are passing Algebra I, according to the 2024 Illinois State Report Card which showed CPS was on par with the State. Taking Algebra I in eighth grade prepares students to take more advanced math and science classes in high school, better preparing them for college and careers, including jobs in the in-demand STEM workforce.

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