“The Science Achievers Program at the Museum of Science & Industry,” by S.M. O’Connor

Science Achievers at the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.) in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago belong to a youth development program that is offered to teenagers who have completed the ten-week-long Science Minors program and have volunteered at M.S.I. for fifty hours. The Science Achievers program allows teens to discover new interests in science and technology; develop leadership skills; prepare for college and careers; learn from working science professionals; mentor new classes of Science Minors; and have the opportunity to participate in paid internships. Teens become more comfortable with science and understand its impact on their lives by engaging M.S.I. guests in activities. Science Achievers are asked to volunteer twelve hours a month to remain in the program.

Credit: Museum of Science and Industry Caption: These are teenagers who went through the Science Achievers youth development program at the Museum of Science and Industry explaining how they benefited from it and intend to study math and/or science in college.

The M.S.I. honored nineteen high school seniors from across Chicagoland at an event on Saturday, June 15, 2019 to celebrate the Science Achievers youth development program. This year’s graduating seniors collectively volunteered more than 7,000 hours to engage people in science activities. They have been offered $700,000 in scholarships.

The graduates are Cameron Allison of Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Illinois; Aissa Avila of Hubbard High School in Chicago; Michelle Awh of the University of Chicago Lab School in Chicago; Thomas Blackmore of the Downers Grove South High School in Downers Grove, Illinois; Sophie Corbett of James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Illinois; Angel Cordero, CICS Northtown Academy in Chicago; Aisia Farmer of Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Illinois; Emily Gamboa of John Hancock College Prep High School in Chicago; Alan Gonzalez of Whitney Young High School in Chicago; Spencer Huynh of Walter Payton High School in Chicago; Sydney Jackson of Kenwood Academy in Chicago; Ella Johnson of Jones College Prep High School in Chicago; Kane Layng of St. Ignatius High School in Chicago; Faithe Metellus of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois; De’ja Roberts of Crete-Monee High School in Crete, Illinois; Pawel Rozanski of Stagg High School in Palos Hills, Illinois; Khalind Shah of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois; Nikita Sharma of Schaumburg High School in Schaumburg, Illinois; and Matthew Wong of the aforementioned Walter Payton High School in Chicago. The M.S.I. surprised the Science Achievers going off to college in the fall with laptop computers courtesy of CDW Corporation.

“Our Science Achievers are a shining example of the many ways MSI inspires and motivates our children to achieve their full potential in science, technology, medicine, and engineering,” stated David Mosena, President and Chief Executive Officer of the M.S.I.

The Science Achievers program is part of the M.S.I.’s Welcome to Science Initiative. In a press release, the M.S.I. described the Welcome to Science Initiative as “a comprehensive program offering the Museum’s award-winning resources to everyone from teachers and school administrators to students and their communities. The initiative extends the content of Museum exhibits through strategies that empower teachers, engage the community, and excite students and Museum guests.”

As I wrote about last month, there are Illinois Free Days at the M.S.I. On Illinois Free Days, Museum Entry (general admission) tickets are free for all Illinois residents who show valid proof of residence such as a driver’s license or state identification card. No further Chicago residence discounts apply on Illinois Free Days. [In a similar vein, I wrote about thirty-three other institutions across Illinois that are participating in Smithsonian Magazine’s 2019 Museum Day®, and thus one need only download a Museum Day® ticket to get free general admission for two on Saturday, September 21, 2019.] In September of 2019, the remaining Illinois Free Days are the 10^th through the 12^th, the 16^th through the 19^th, and the 23^rd through the 26^th. The people who benefit the most from these free days will be families with children too young to be in school, home-schooling families, and adults who are retired, semi-retired, self-employed, or with open schedules. This schedule is subject to change.

SEPTEMBER, 2019 ILLINOIS FREE DAY SCHEDULE

Month	Dates
2^nd Week of September	Monday, September 9, 2019 Tuesday, September 10, 2019 Wednesday, September 11, 2019 Thursday, September 12, 2019
3^rd Week of September	Monday, September 16, 2019 Tuesday, September 17, 2019 Wednesday, September 18, 2019 Thursday, September 19, 2019
4^th Week of September	Monday, September 23, 2019 Tuesday, September 24, 2019 Wednesday, September 25, 2019 Thursday, September 26, 2019

On Illinois Free Days, Museum Entry (general admission) tickets are free for adults and children alike; Giant Dome Theater movie tickets, Wired to Wear, Makers United, Coal Mine tour tickets, Fab Lab workshop tickets, WOW! Tour tickets, and Future Energy Chicago tickets are $12 each for adults and $9 each for children (ages three-to-eleven); and U-505 Onboard Tour tickets are $18 each for adults and $14 each for children (ages three-to-eleven). This is limited to six children under eighteen, per one adult.

Regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) resumed. The Museum of Science and Industry regularly makes small adjustments to this schedule, so when planning a trip there, check this Webpage and the M.S.I.’s social media for updates.

EXTENDED HOURS AND EXCEPTIONS

11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Sunday, September 29, 2019
9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.	Saturday, October 5, 2019
Closed	Thursday, November 28, 2019 (Thanksgiving Day)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Friday, November 29, 2019 Saturday, November 30, 2019 Sunday, December 1, 2019 Saturday, December 7, 2019 Sunday, December 8, 2019 Saturday, December 14, 2019 Sunday, December 15, 2019 Saturday, December 21, 2019 Sunday, December 22, 2019 Monday, December 23, 2019
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Tuesday, December 24, 2019 (Christmas Eve) Tuesday, December 31, 2019 (New Year’s Eve)
Closed	Wednesday, December 25, 2019 (Christmas Day)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Thursday, December 26, 2019 Friday, December 27, 2019 Saturday, December 28, 2019 Sunday, December 29, 2019 Monday, December 30, 2019
11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.	Wednesday, January 1, 2020 (New Year’s Day)
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Thursday, January 2, 2020 Friday, January 3, 2020

Often stylized as the “Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago” or the “Museum of Science + Industry” the institution is located at the northern end of the Chicago Park District’s Jackson Park, on the south side of 57^th Street, between Lake Shore Drive to the east and Cornell Drive to the west, in the East Hyde Park neighborhood of the Hyde Park Community Area (Community Area #41) on the South Side of Chicago. The address is 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637. Founded by Sears, Roebuck & Company President Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) in 1926, through The Commercial Club of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry opened in three stages between 1933 and 1940. It occupies the Palace of Fine Arts from Chicago’s first World’s Fair, the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893). The M.S.I. is open every day of the year with two exceptions: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. On most days, it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but during peak periods it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org/ and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.

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The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.