Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Motto	A Pioneering Educational Community
Established	1985
School type	Publicly funded magnet
President	Stephanie Pace Marshall
Principal	Eric McLaren
Location	Aurora, Ill., USA
Campus	Suburban
Enrollment	640
Faculty	55
Founder	Leon Lederman
Mascot	Titan
Homepage	www.imsa.edu

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year, residential, public high school of approximately six hundred thirty students (the school has only sophomores, juniors, and seniors). IMSA is located in Aurora, Illinois, about 45 miles due west of Chicago, Illinois. Main logo of Illinois Math and Science Academy File links The following pages link to this file: Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy ... Jump to: navigation, search 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall is a world-renowned educator and the founding president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. ... Auroras Logo Aurora is a city located in Kane, DuPage, Will and Kendall counties in Illinois. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: Land of Lincoln, The Prairie State Other U.S. States Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) Senators Richard Durbin (D) Barack Obama (D) Official languages English Area 149,998 km² (25th)  - Land 143,968 km²  - Water 6,030 km² (4. ... Illustration of the backyards of a surburban neighbourhood Suburbs are inhabited districts located either on the outer rim of a city or outside the official limits of a city (the term varies from country to country), or the outer elements of a conurbation. ... Leon Max Lederman (born July 15, 1922) is an American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his work on neutrinos. ... This page is about the moon of Saturn. ... Auroras Logo Aurora is a city located in Kane, DuPage, Will and Kendall counties in Illinois. ... Jump to: navigation, search Chicago, colloquially known as the Second City and the Windy City, is the third-largest city in population in the United States and the largest inland city in the country. ...

Overview

IMSA, which is modeled on the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, has a primary focus on mathematics, science, and technology, though virtually all other academic subjects are studied. The credit system bears out this emphasis on mathematics and science. Picture from in front of IMSA -- Entelechy sculpture by Bruce White. ... Jump to: navigation, search The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) is a two-year, public residential high school located in Durham, North Carolina. ... Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mathematics Look up Mathematics on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Mathematics Bogomolny, Alexander: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. ... // What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

IMSA is a residential high school, similar to a boarding school, which accepts students from across the state. It is also a public school, and students are not charged tuition, though a facilities fee ranging from the low hundreds to two thousand dollars is charged on a sliding scale. The bulk of the school's money is provided by the Illinois General Assembly after a budget recommendation is made to the governor by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. (By Illinois law, the governor submits an official budget to the legislature, in which IMSA's funding is included.) The total amount spent per student for tuition, room, and board is estimated to be around $26,000, although different reports suggest amounts as low as $15,000. IMSA currently does not accept students from other states or from abroad, but is studying an alteration to this policy. If accepted, these students would pay full tuition, room, and board. Matriculating students are currently required to prove their residency. IMSA is a member of the NCSSSMST, and its founding and current president, Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall, was also the founding president of the NCSSSMST. Jump to: navigation, search A boarding school is a self-contained educational establishment where students not only study but where some or all students may live. ... The Illinois General Assembly convenes at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. ... National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST) is an alliance of specialized high schools in the United States whose focus is advanced preparatory studies in mathematics, science and technology. ...

Entrance

Prospective students, who are usually freshmen in high school but in exceptional cases can be students in eighth grade, must fill out an extensive application to gain admission to IMSA.

The applications consists of an official transcript from 7th, 8th, and 9th grades (or 7th and 8th, if the applicant is straight from 8th grade), scores on the SAT I, several long and short essays totaling roughly four to five pages, three teacher recommendations in Science, Mathematics, and English, and a list of awards and extra-curricular activities. Due to these requirements, IMSA has a strong academic reputation. Since it draws the best students from across the state, it is sometimes considered a magnet school. Though IMSA does not disclose the numbers, there are generally over 1,000 applicants for 240 places. The average score on the SAT for incoming sophomores (the test is taken while the students are freshmen) is between 1200 and 1250. This compares to an exiting average score of around 1400. The SATs (pronounced S-A-T not sat), formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Tests and Scholastic Assessment Tests, are standardized tests frequently used by colleges and universities in the United States to aid in the selection of incoming students. ... In the U.S. system of education, a magnet school is a public school that draws students interested in specific subjects such as academics or the arts from the surrounding region (typically a school district or a county). ...

In order to draw greater numbers of applications and "transform teaching and learning," IMSA has an extensive outreach network run by The Center@IMSA. Some students who are invited to attend IMSA are admitted on the condition that they successfully complete a three-week, intensive preparation course, EXCEL, over the summer. IMSA has a fairly low graduation rate. Incoming sophomore classes are roughly 240, but graduating classes are only about 205. The reasons for this range from the difficulty of the IMSA curriculum, to home-sickness, to disciplinary issues, as well as the fact that there are no transfer students to replenish the ranks.

Academics

Students at IMSA take a very rigorous college preparatory curriculum. All classes are taught at the honors level, though IMSA philosophically spurns the Advanced Placement curriculum, and each student must fulfill a set of specific credits in order to graduate. This set of credits is broken down by academic subject. Each semester-long class counts for 0.5 credits, unless it meets with greater-than-normal frequency. Advanced Placement (AP) is the term used to describe high school classes that are taught at a college level. ...

IMSA bills itself as an "Educational Laboratory", and as such is frequently trying out new and experimental pedagogical techniques. These range from how classes are laid out to what is taught and even to who takes them; in the early 1990s IMSA received national attention for an exploratory study on whether girls learned physics better in single-sex or co-ed environments. IMSA's main math sequence, entitled "Mathematical Investigations" and in development by IMSA faculty since 1991, was published in handbook form in 2005 and is beginning to be adopted by other school districts in the state of Illinois. IMSA's core science curriculum has been through a number of ground-up restructurings, but its current implementation is called "Scientific Inquiries" and integrates topics from all branches of science into a single double-credit class taken by all sophomores. Jump to: navigation, search 2005(MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"Mod" scheduling

The class day at IMSA runs from 7:30 to 4:15 and since 1996 it has been divided into twenty 20-minute modules, or "mods", each separated by a five-minute passing period (plus a half hour in the middle for lunch). Classes can meet for anywhere from two mods (45 minutes) to five mods (120 minutes), permitting the faculty some flexibility between meeting frequently for shorter periods (e.g. for foreign language classes), or less frequently for longer periods (useful in lab science classes). Jump to: navigation, search 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Virtually all students have some free periods scattered throughout the day, as well as occasional class cancellations. However, because of the residential nature of the school, there is no need to require to sit in a study hall; they can just return to their rooms (or go to the library, the computer lab, etc.). However, IMSA is not what is usually called an "open campus", as students are not permitted to leave the school grounds without special permission.

Frequency and length of classes

IMSA students only attend class for four days per week, with Wednesdays reserved for research and co-curricular activity. Each student has two schedules to keep track of: one for Monday/Thursday, and one for Tuesday/Friday. A given class may meet all four days, but it need not meet for the same amount of time each day; and some classes meet only two days a week. The pattern for each class is usually reduced to a pair of numbers: a 3-2 class meets for 3 mods on Monday and Thursday, and only 2 on Tuesday and Friday, while a 0-4 meets only on Tuesday and Friday, for 4 mods each day. As a result, there is considerable variation as to how many classroom minutes each course has per week:

Course requirements

IMSA students have a fairly rigid set of requirements at a departmental level, but within each department (especially in math and the sciences), they have many options for meeting each requirement. The class requirements are as follows, along with the typical meetings times of courses in that department (for clarity the symmetric alternatives are omitted---e.g. "3-2" below means "either 3-2 or 2-3"):

• Math: 3-2 for six semesters, though a small number of upperclass math electives are 3-0.
• Science: 4-4 for two (sophomore) semesters, then four semesters of electives. Most electives are 4-0, but some are 5-0, and some are 3-2.
• Foreign language: 3-2 for four semesters.
• English: 3-0 for six semesters.
• History and social science: 3-2 for two (sophomore) semesters, then 3-0 for three semesters.
• Wellness: 3-2 for one (sophomore) semester, then 3-0 for one semester.
• Fine arts: 2-2 or 4-0 for one semester.

There is also a two semester additional requirement that can be filled by either math or science electives. Once these requirements are complete, students are free to take electives in any area. Most students take a full six semesters of foreign language, for instance, and despite its nominal status as a "math and science academy", IMSA offers a variety of electives in English and History as well.

Intersession

During the week before the second semester, all students are required to participate in Intersession. Intersession is an opportunity for students to explore academics outside of the school's regular curriculum. Students are given the choice to participate in two small or one large on-campus course(s) during Intersession, or travel abroad for a faculty sponsored and designed study that week. Classes range from "Physics and Sports" to a planned trip to study Lighthouse keeping at Washington State. IMSA alumni are particularly encouraged to teach Intersession classes, and many have done so since the program's inception.

Inquiry

Every Wednesday is "I-Day" (for "inquiry") and is reserved for research in the Mentorship and Inquiry programs. [1] These programs give students the opportunity to develop their own scientific research, working with scientists from around the Chicago area. All IMSA students are strongly encouraged to participate in this program, and several every year publish their research results in academic conferences and journals.

Student life

Awards and college admissions

IMSA consistently ranks at the top of the nation in standardized test scores (of roughly 200 students in the senior class, about 50 are National Merit Semifinalists), as well as in the prestigious Siemens-Westinghouse and Intel Science competitions. The class of 2005 produced six semifinalists each for Siemens and Intel. There was also one finalist for the Siemens competition, and three finalists in the Intel competition. In addition, two of the finalists in the Intel placed in the top ten; one student stood second overall, while another won sixth place.

Because of the relative youth of the institution when compared to schools such as Phillips Exeter Academy or Stuyvesant, IMSA does not have a long standing connection with any Ivy League university. Nevertheless, IMSA students annually gain admission to the nation's best universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. IMSA students have tremendous success in gaining admission to MIT in particular: out of 197 students in the class of 2004, 18 were admitted to MIT.-1... Stuyvesant can refer to: In Manhattan, New York Peter Stuyvesant, last governor of New Amsterdam. ... Harvard, see Harvard (disambiguation) Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... Jump to: navigation, search For other Princetons, see Princeton. ... Yale can refer to: Yale University, one of the United States oldest and most famous universities. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a widely renowned leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a widely renowned leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ...

History

Nobel laureate Leon Lederman, director emeritus of nearby Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, was among those to first propose the school in 1982 - 1983, and together with Governor Jim Thompson led the effort for its creation. (Thompson has noted with pride that he chose to build IMSA instead of competing for the ill-fated supercollider project.) The school was established by the Illinois General Assembly in 1985, and first opened to students in 1986. The Academy is housed in a building originally constructed as the north campus of West Aurora High School, originally constructed for the 1978-1979 academic year, with seven outlying dormitories built after IMSA took over the campus. (On several occasions, in 1986, 1987, and 1990, dorm construction delays forced the Academy to set aside temporary housing in the main academic building.) IMSA's first class graduated in 1989, with a commencement speech given by Dr. Lederman. Leon Max Lederman (born July 15, 1922) is an American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his work on neutrinos. ... Fermilab Robert Rathbun Wilson Hall Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia near Chicago, Illinois, is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics, operated for the Department of Energy by the Universities Research Association (URA). ... Batavia is a city located in Kane County, Illinois and DuPage County, Illinois. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... James Robert Thompson (born May 8, 1936), also known as Big Jim Thompson, was the longest-serving Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois. ... SuperCollider is a real time audio synthesis programming language. ... The Illinois General Assembly convenes at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... West Aurora High School is a high school in Aurora, Illinois. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The current and only president of the school is former Batavia Superintendent Stephanie Pace Marshall, who was involved with the project from the start and helped write IMSA's enabling legislation. She serves on the board of several non-profit and for-profit institutions, such as Tellabs Inc. The current principal, the day-to-day operator of the school, is Eric McLaren, who began his IMSA career as a Resident Counselor in the first years of IMSA's existence and has filled many administrative roles during his tenure there. (Coincidentally, when McLaren attended high school during the 1970s, it was in what is today IMSA's main academic building!) Although the school received a budget cut in FY 2002, its budget has increased recently, largely due to the support of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego). Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall is a world-renowned educator and the founding president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. ... Rod R. Blagojevich is the 40th Governor of Illinois. ...

See also

• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
• Stuyvesant High School

Jump to: navigation, search Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (often abbreviated TJHSST) is a public magnet school in Fairfax County, Virginia, with specialization in the fields of science and mathematics, and which enrolls students from several localities within the... Stuyvesant High School, often nicknamed Stuy by its staff and students, is one of New York Citys specialized math- and science-based public high schools. ...

External links

• IMSA's website
• Microsoft Terraserver satellite photo of school campus