TEENS

The Nature Museum TEENS program engaged approximately 60 Chicago high school students annually through its fall, spring, and summer sessions. Participants conducted field and lab investigations focused on urban ecology, contributed data to community science projects, added specimens to the Chicago Academy of Sciences’ scientific and teaching collections, and participated in local habitat restoration projects. From 2014 through Spring 2025, over 370 Chicago teens have participated in the program. Continue reading to learn more about the program.

Program participants learned ecological field methods, content, and concepts through a range of local, national, and global participatory science projects, as well existing Nature Museum research projects. In the summer program, teens worked in groups of two to four to develop and carry out field investigations based on shared interests. Teens collaboratively developed research questions, designed data collection protocols and shareable mobile data collection forms, and collected and analyzed field-based data. Groups wrote project reports and created project websites, which provided open access to data collection protocols, background information, project data, data visualizations, maps, analyses, and conclusions, allowing for projects to be replicated and built upon by future program participants and members of the general public. 

The fall and spring programs also focused on teen-driven investigations, while incorporating off-site habitat restoration and environmental stewardship field trips in partnership with the Forest Preserves of Cook County, the Chicago Park District, and other partners. In addition to teen-created research projects, TEENS participants have contributed data to projects including iNaturalist, the Student Network for Amphibian Pathogen Surveillance (SNAPS), Squirrel-Net, and eBird. Specimens collected and prepared by teens not only are added to scientific and teaching collections, botany and entomology specimens collected by teens have also been featured in three Nature Museum exhibits, including the current Arachnids in the Academy exhibit.

In recognition of its impact, the TEENS summer program earned the first-of-its-kind accreditation from the Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS) in April 2024, one of only six out-of-school-time, pre-college STEM programs in the U.S. to receive this honor. The accreditation elevates the critical learning and skills development provided by the TEENS program, increasing the value of these experiences in the higher education admissions process. The accreditation was facilitated through the STEM PUSH Network, an NSF INCLUDES Alliance working to leverage the power of pre-college STEM programs to broaden the participation in STEM.

The name “Teenagers Exploring and Explaining Nature and Science (TEENS)” originated in the early 1990s, with the current program model operating 2014-present. Teen programming at the museum has taken various formats and focuses over the years, beginning with the Chicago Junior Academy of Sciences developed in the mid-1960s by Dr. William J. Beecher.

Questions? Email us at teens@naturemuseum.org with questions specific to the Nature Museum TEENS program. For inquiries related to the teen application through After School Matters please call 312-768-5200 or visit afterschoolmatters.org/contact