NIU Today

Talk about food for thought. NIU’s National Science Foundation PROMISE Scholars program is offering a new initiative, “Take a STEM Professor to Lunch,” this fall. Designed to encourage students and faculty to hold conversations outside of class on topics of academic interests, STEM research and professional experiences, the program builds student-professor relationships. Students can schedule...

Mars might be farther than 140 million miles away, but that won’t stop kids from using LEGO Robotics to explore the red planet at NIU this fall. STEM Outreach is again offering its interactive, hands-on STEM Saturday classes to help students in fourth-grade and older explore concepts and careers in science, technology, engineering and math....

Everyone knows that football is a physical game, but few people stop to think about the actual physics behind it. Newton’s laws describe football players on the field just as well as carts on a track or balls rolling down ramps. And what better way to gain an understanding of bodies in motion than to...

For NIU senior Octavio Escalante-Aguirre, life is beautiful, as the Italians like to say. His life has been a series of journeys, beginning at age 3 when his family moved from his birth home of Monterrey, Mexico, to Aurora, Ill. During high school, he made the trek on Saturday mornings to nearby Fermilab for lectures...

When it comes to STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – education leaders note a substantial disparity in the participation and retention rates among African-Americans. The low number of students of color pursuing STEM degrees, and the absence of underrepresented students obtaining those degrees, is only becoming more critical. Members of the National Society...

The 2014 Bright Futures program – the Science of Music – is staging its grand finale Tuesday, June 10, at Hopkins Park Shelter prior to the first DeKalb Municipal Band concert of the season. Sponsored by NIU STEM Outreach, DeKalb County libraries and the DeKalb Municipal Band, the Bright Futures Fair offers a night of free...

Summer is just around the corner. What are your young Einsteins going to do to keep their minds engaged? This June, July and August, NIU STEM Outreach and other STEM departments are offering more camp experiences than ever before. Whether students want to learn how roller coasters work, design their own video games, create scientifically...

Summer is just around the corner. Do you know where your kids will be burning daylight this year? At Northern Illinois University’s summer camps, your children can learn to write the great American novel, become the next Indiana Jones, sharpen their soccer skills, create video games, design roller coasters or even prevent future wars between...

Christina Magee sets the bar high for teachers within the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) across the region. She mentors the Rockford Robotics Team and is the college and career academy coach at Guilford High School. In March, she received a Rockford Chamber of Commerce award for Business Catalyst of the Year....

NIU this semester is launching a new Center for Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, aimed at strengthening the university’s support of science and mathematics education throughout the region. The Illinois Board of Higher Education recently approved center status for a duration of five years, after which it could become permanent. The center will be housed...

The PROMISE Scholars Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, will offer two opportunities to support students’ interests in NIU research and STEM professional development. From 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, the PROMISE Scholars will host a STEM conference titled, “Advancing STEM Education: Priming the Pump.” Invited companies include Fermi National Accelerator Lab, Lucent-Alcatel,...

Oh, if science teachers only knew what their students were really thinking about during lessons. Well, Northern Illinois University researchers actually figured out a way to tap into high school students’ thoughts during class time, and there were plenty of surprises and valuable insights. So many, in fact, that the three-year research project studying students’...