We shatter barriers and defy stereotypes, providing opportunities for systemically under-resourced students to explore, pursue, and excel in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Project Exploration is a nonprofit science education and youth development organization launched in 1999 to address inequities in access to high quality STEM opportunities. We provide free after-school programs, school break programs, and summer programs at several Chicago schools and at our 2 West Side STEM Learning Centers—including our newest inside Frederick Douglass Academy High School.
Students
Discover your spark in fields where it’s possible to change the world.
Do you dream of becoming a veterinarian like Nevaeh who wants to open an affordable veterinary clinic on the West Side of Chicago?
Or maybe you, like Tichuria, aspire to become an OB-GYN nurse, helping bring life into the world? Project Exploration programs lead toward these careers and many more, including engineer, race car designer, CSI (crime scene investigator), astronomer, sports scientist, environmentalist, and paleontologist. Dive into our program offerings and choose your path.
Project Exploration programs are fun, hands-on experiences taught in Chicago’s South and West sides by former students, now 18-24 years old and ready to give back. Our paid youth instructors known as STEAMbassadors (STEM Ambassadors) have a passion for science, love the curriculum, and live in the neighborhoods where they teach.
Take part in free after-school classes, field trips, school-break sessions and summer camps. Showcase what you are learning in our Reflection of Knowledge events.
Parents / Guardians
Are you looking for free out-of-school programming that your elementary-, middle- or high-school kids will be thrilled to attend?Do you live in the Chicago area? Register your child today and give them an educational advantage that can help them attend college and engage in a fulfilling career.
Project Exploration has been changing the face of science since 1999—25 years and counting. In 2009, President Obama gave Project Exploration the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Mentoring. The Obama Foundation is still a supporter of our work in Chicago.
Our Launch-Discover-Explore-Pursue model creates a multi-year growth trajectory for students. This is more than just a summer experience. This is a way for kids to connect with science in meaningful ways through varied sensory and learning experiences, across their journey from kindergarten through high school.
Project Exploration programs provide students with critical social and emotional skills and support them in becoming astute problem finders and solvers. As a result of participating in our programs, students report Increased self-confidence in STEM abilities. They also gain skills like leadership, communication, and collaboration.
Project Exploration currently operates two STEM Learning Centers. The newest opened quietly this spring inside Frederick Douglass Academy High School, “The Jewel” of Chicago’s West Side. It joins our Bethel New Life campus (opened in 2022).
Schools
Many schools on the South and 
West sides of Chicago have limited or no robust STEM learning opportunities for their students.We can help at no cost to your school! Project Exploration programs are grant-supported to reduce the cost to school partners, and are always provided at no cost to students and families.
Organized around four phases of scientific inquiry (Launch, Discover, Explore, and Pursue), our fluid, non-linear programs reflect students’ emerging skills, curiosity, and ambition. We encourage them to take ownership of their learning, become active members of the scientific community, and invest in a lifelong practice of inquiry.
Project Exploration welcomes inquiries from Chicago Public Schools, private or charter schools, and other community-based partners seeking to supplement their out-of-school time offerings to including science, technology, engineering, and math. Once or twice weekly program models are available depending on the needs of school partners, and we work with partners to determine the program offering, curriculum choices, and implementation format (e.g. virtual, in-person) to meet their needs.
Donors
Transform Lives. Project Exploration has provided transformative learning opportunities to over 45,000 Chicago youth in our 25-year history.
Our efforts work! A ten-year longitudinal study revealed that our students are three times more likely to enroll in a four-year college than their peers, and over one-third of PE alumni major in a STEM-related discipline.
With your help, we can ensure continued, equitable access to STEM programs and careers for over 1,000 Chicago students this year.
Join community partners like Boeing, Green Corp, Lincoln Park Zoo and Shedd Aquarium.
Volunteers
It takes a village to maintain our program spaces and inspire the next generation of STEM professionals. Make your heart happy and be a part of something truly transformative in Chicago. Whether you want to share your teaching skills, showcase your professional STEM career, or become a mentor, we have opportunities for you. Learn more.
News
Project Exploration’s newest STEM Learning Center opened quietly this spring inside Frederick Douglass Academy High School, “The Jewel” of Chicago’s West Side. It joins Project Exploration’s current center on Bethel New Life’s campus as a permanent, physical home for rigorous STEM learning on the West Side of Chicago.
The Frederick Douglass STEM Learning Center is home to the Sisters4Science Design Lab, connected to the Obama Foundation’s Growth Opportunity Alliance—a recognition that the work happening here carries ambitions far beyond one school or one city block.
“When you put the right resources inside a school—really inside it, not somewhere across town—you change what students believe is possible for them. That’s what this center does.”
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