The College of LAS has dozens of educational resources, programs, and opportunities for K-12 educators, youth, and families. From collaborative public educational spaces such as the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, to innovative summer camps such as Bonding with Chemistry, LAS empowers families, K-12 learners, and educators to explore what makes them curious and drive educational innovation.
Programs and opportunities for K-12 students and families
Participate in High School Research
NEUROSCIENCE · MOLECULAR & INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY · SOCIOLOGY
A six-week paid summer research placement for rising juniors and seniors at Champaign-Urbana high schools. Students work in a campus lab on a mentored project and present it at a closing poster symposium, with weekly seminars on scientific communication and college readiness. Mentorship comes from faculty, graduate and undergraduate researchers, and a teacher from their own school.
Visit One of Our Public Educational Spaces
SPURLOCK MUSEUM
Guided and self-guided tours for K-12 groups, with transportation grants available.
ENTOMOLOGY
The first free-standing science center in the nation devoted to flowering plants and their pollinators, at the south end of the UI Arboretum. School groups are a core audience — it has served every second-grade class in Champaign Unit 4, preschool groups, 4-H beekeeping academies, Girl Scout troops, and high school Ag Ed campers.
PLANT BIOLOGY
A 2,000 sq ft, 37-foot-tall conservatory holding 200+ species across 60 families of tropical and subtropical plants, plus collections rooms and an outdoor butterfly garden. Free and open to the public, Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 4:30. Staff give 30-45 minute tours for groups of 15 or fewer as schedules allow.
ASTRONOMY
Free open houses at the 1896 campus observatory, a National Historic Landmark, on the second Friday of each month. Look through the original 12-inch refracting telescope and several smaller scopes, with astronomers on hand for questions. Activities move indoors if it's cloudy.
Attend an Event for Families
ENTOMOLOGY
Family and school-age public science outreach run by Entomology graduate students, in its 43rd year in 2026.
NEUROSCIENCE PROGRAM
A free annual science fair at the Orpheum Children's Science Museum each spring, drawing hundreds. Undergraduates through faculty staff the booths: tricks of perception, holding real animal brains, building model neurons.
CHEMISTRY
Holiday Magic chemistry demonstration show
A free, family-friendly show held each December, produced by chemistry teaching faculty and students.
MATHEMATICS
A free, day-long event for 8th to 12th graders aged 13 to 18, aimed at students of underrepresented genders, run by the Association for Women in Mathematics graduate chapter. The chapter runs other events for grades 5-12, including for the home-schooled community.
CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN & PACIFIC STUDIES
A documentary and independent film series at the Spurlock Museum. Each film brings contemporary stories from across Asia to campus and the wider community, with a local or visiting expert leading discussion afterward.
Participate in a Program for Families
ENTOMOLOGY
A citizen science portal for learning about honey bees and bumble bees. Submit bee photos and contribute to a nationwide effort to establish baseline population data. BeeBlitz events run at the Pollinatarium, Meadowbrook Park, and the UI Forestry area.
CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN STUDIES
Story time programming on Latin America and the Caribbean for young children, run at public libraries, schools, and community programs.
RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN, AND EURASIAN CENTER
K-12 & community outreach initiatives
Slavic Story Time, the Youth Literature Festival, elementary after-school programs, and the high-school Russian Olympiada competition.
MATHEMATICS
Illinois Mathematics Lab outreach
Teen Hour at Champaign Public Library, STEM Nights at Franklin STEAM Academy and Middletown Prairie Elementary, Science at the Market, and local high school science fairs via I-STEM.
ENTOMOLOGY
I-Pollinate
A community science research initiative. Hundreds of community members across the state contribute data toward questions about pollinators and their decline.
Participate in a Program Through Your School
SOMEONE COMES TO YOUR CLASSROOM
CENTER FOR AFRICAN STUDIES
Classroom Visitors and Guest Bureau
Faculty, graduate students, and outreach staff with Africa expertise present in your classroom on history, culture, and current affairs. Your teacher requests a visit through the center.
CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN & PACIFIC STUDIES
Asian American Education Initiative
Award-winning Asian American writers, authors, and poets visit Urbana-Champaign K-12 classrooms virtually to share their stories. Co-organized with the College of Education in response to the TEAACH Act.
CENTER FOR GLOBAL STUDIES · SPURLOCK MUSEUM
Spurlock Artifact Program (Big History)
Sixth-graders in area middle schools get repeat classroom visits from two College of Education graduate students, with artifacts, replicas, art-making, and hands-on activities. It reaches all six Champaign middle school social studies classrooms and Urbana Middle School; a pilot in St. Joseph extends it to rural schools.
CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN & PACIFIC STUDIES
Lunar New Year classroom outreach
Run with the Asian American Cultural Center, reaching Champaign-Urbana elementary schools from pre-school through 5th grade.
CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN STUDIES
Part of the center's outreach program, alongside community programs and the Parkland College Migrant Education Program on the U of I campus.
NEUROSCIENCE PROGRAM
Hands-on brain-science activities for K-12 students of all ages, plus classroom visits from neuroscience graduate students and faculty.
LINGUISTICS PROGRAM
Summer Institute for Languages of the Muslim World
Arabic, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, and Wolof: four hours daily, plus cooking classes, a film series, conversation tables, and field trips. June 15-August 7, 2026. Running since 2008.
Intensive Language Instruction Program (ILIP)
30 hours of immersive summer language instruction, in person or on Zoom, in Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Biblical Greek, Ukrainian, and more. Illinois K-12 educators earn up to 30 ISBE Professional Development Hours plus a payment. No grades, no credit, minimal homework.
Your Class Works With Us!
CHEMISTRY
R.E.A.C.T. (Reaching and Educating America's Chemists of Tomorrow)
Running since 2002 and now one of the largest outreach programs at Illinois. Undergraduate staff coordinate hundreds of volunteers who visit elementary schools across East Central Illinois for hands-on chemistry. Also works with the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club, the Girl Scouts, and Champaign home-schooling groups.
CHEMISTRY
Project-based learning in science, technology, engineering, and math for local elementary and middle school students, building STEM interest and identity among students from underrepresented backgrounds. Named for St. Elmo Brady, the first Black person to earn a PhD in chemistry, at Illinois in 1916.
MATHEMATICS
NetMath Partner High School Program
Take U of I math courses — Calculus III, Linear Algebra — at your own high school, through NetMath courseware with your own teacher supervising. Reduced tuition and University of Illinois transcript credit that transfers widely. 18 partner high schools, mostly Chicago suburbs plus Urbana High School.
CHEMISTRY
Project SEARCH (Science Education and Research for Children)
University of Illinois students visit Urbana or Champaign K-5 classrooms two hours a week for a semester, teaching lessons they developed with the classroom teacher.
CHEMISTRY
Encouraging Tomorrow's Chemists
Graduate student volunteers run chemistry demonstrations four times a year at Urbana Middle School, on the nature of matter and the chemistry of chemiluminescence and polymers.
CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN & PACIFIC STUDIES
Agora Days at University Laboratory High School
A four-day mini-course on Chinese literati drawing, taught by a College of Education doctoral student. Part of a series of modules on Chinese calligraphy and literati painting for high school students.
Compete!
EUROPEAN UNION CENTER
Teams of three to five high schoolers research problems and solutions in Europe's economy and present their findings. Regional winners go to the national finals at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; winning teams have received a Moody's Foundation trip to Washington.
Illinois High School Translation Competition
High school students translate from one of seven languages into English.
Illinois Global Scholar Program
Recognizes students for global and cultural engagement.
CHEMISTRY
Regional and state one-day competitions for middle and high school students, drawing roughly 1,500 students from 50 schools. Chemistry graduate student volunteers design and judge the events.
Attend a Summer Camp!
ASTRONOMY
Astronomy Summer Camp for High School Students
A one-week camp each summer for high schoolers entering grades 10-12: hands-on projects, programming exercises, and field trips. Applications are open for 2026.
CHEMISTRY
Bonding with Chemistry: a day camp for girls
An annual summer day camp for girls in 5th through 8th grade. Use science to make art and toys, investigate the earth and environment, explore the chemistry of food, decorate t-shirts. Supported by the ACS and Illinois Chemistry.
CENTER FOR WRITING STUDIES
Two week-long summer camps at the College of Education for writers in grades 1-12, led by experienced Champaign-Urbana teachers. Work in small groups across genres — short stories, storytelling, comic strips, plays, fairytales, poetry — with a middle and high school section that adds technology work. Running since 2010.
LINGUISTICS
A two-week intensive Elementary Arabic course for high school students with little or no prior Arabic, running since 2016. Four hours of daily instruction plus conversation tables, film series, cooking classes, calligraphy, henna, and field trips. Students live in a campus residence hall and earn 2 college credits. 2026 dates: June 14-27. Qatar Foundation International funds need- and merit-based scholarships.
STATISTICS
A six-week summer data-science experience for 30 to 40 high-school students, alongside the free online Data Science DISCOVERY course content.
SLAVIC LANGUAGES & LITERATURES
Summer Intensive Beginning Russian
High-school students may enroll as non-degree students in the intensive summer Russian course.
Take a Course for Credit
MATHEMATICS
NetMath for High School Students
Self-paced online U of I math courses for high schoolers, with an explicit option for home-schooled students. Running since 1989. The individual-enrollment path — the only entry on this page with no other home.
MATHEMATICS
NetMath Partner High School Program
Also listed under “through your school.” Calculus III and Linear Algebra at your own high school, for reduced tuition and transferable U of I transcript credit.
LINGUISTICS
Also listed under summer camps. Earns 2 college credits.
SLAVIC LANGUAGES & LITERATURES
Summer Intensive Beginning Russian
Also listed under summer camps. High schoolers enroll as non-degree students.
Explore On Your Own!
CENTER FOR GLOBAL STUDIES
Points students to the International and Area Studies Library's guide to free online global studies materials.
CENTER FOR AFRICAN STUDIES:
Watch, listen, and read about Africa
Educational cartoons (Bino and Fino, Ananse, Turtle Taido), African nursery rhymes and language videos, TED-Ed talks on Mansa Musa and the danger of a single story, plus curated African news, music, and art.
CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN STUDIES
Latin American dance tutorials and language basics
CLACS-produced material students can use directly: a basic manual for classroom communication in Spanish, Portuguese, and Quechua, plus a series of Latin American dance tutorial videos.