Our Education Programs

Droplet!

Droplet is our short one-afternoon program. Droplet was just offered Fall 2022. High school students are invited to take short classes, in all different subject areas, designed and taught by UChicago students. While most of our teachers are UChicago undergraduates, graduate students (or professors, or anyone else) are certainly welcome to teach too. Teaching at Droplet is a very small time commitment. You can teach as little as one hour,or teach classes for all three of our class hours! All we ask is that you commit firmly to teaching if you sign up, and that you bring as much passion and energy to designing and teaching your class(es) as you know how. We’ll help you out every step of the way. If you need ideas for what to teach, we've collected some!! Ideas include active classes like dance or athletics, Shakespearian comedy and acting, origami through math, and classes focusing on science experiments. Feel free to improve upon these and come up with your own! Think of ways to get students actively working on projects or investigating the different concepts you are trying to teach. If you haven’t worked with high school students before, don’t worry, we are happy to answer any questions you have. And if you need supplies or equipment for your class, let us know, and we’ll do the best we can to provide them. Registration is currently open!

Cascade!

Cascade will be offered in Spring 2023. Cascade is a recurring program, that happens for 5 weeks starting on Tuesdays. High school students from all over Chicago come to the UChicago campus to take five-week classes in all different subject areas, designed and taught by UChicago students. While most of our teachers are UChicago undergraduates, graduate students (or professors, or anyone else) are certainly welcome to teach too.
Teaching at Cascade is a more substantial time commitment than teaching at Splash, our one-day program in the fall. There are fewer classes than at Splash, but they go into more depth. We work with teachers extensively to plan each class and make sure that all the classes offered are top notch. While many of our classes are taught by single teachers, we also encourage co-teaching for Cascade because it allows teachers to share the considerable yet highly rewarding work of planning classes and teaching students.

Splash!

Splash is our one-day spring program. This year, it will be held on Saturday, February 5th, 2022. High school students from all over Chicago (and beyond!) come to UChicago's campus to take short classes, in all different subject areas, designed and taught by UChicago students. While most of our teachers are UChicago undergraduates, graduate students (or professors, or anyone else) are certainly welcome to teach too. Teaching at Splash is a very small time commitment. You can teach as little as one hour, and attend a short training session in advance of the program. (We have six class hours for Splash, so you can go all out and teach six classes if you so choose. Or teach for our five-week program, Cascade, too!) Even teaching several different classes is substantially less work than most commitments at this University. All we ask is that you commit firmly to teaching if you sign up, and that you bring as much passion and energy to designing and teaching your class(es) as you know how. We’ll help you out every step of the way. If you haven’t worked with high school students before, don’t worry—we have training sessions, and are happy to answer any questions you have. And if you need supplies or equipment for your class, let us know, and we’ll do the best we can to provide them.