DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - It's been an exciting year in STEM education in Central Illinois. Through our STEM Minute series, we've been able to highlight some impressive programs throughout the area.   

One of those programs is SKATE for Girls at the University of Illinois. It's a two-part program, that combines figure skating with math. 

"SKATE for Girls stands for Solving Kinesthetically And Transforming Education, and basically the mission of the organization is to combine figure skating and math to make STEM more interesting to girls," said Mayumi Suzue-Pan, founder of SKATE for Girls.

Participants track their speed on ice and outside and compare their average speed. The elementary age participants connect with college mentors in the STEM field. 

Another program highlighted this year was ISU Physics on the Road. College students brought devices like tuning forks and theremins, which demonstrate how sound waves work.  

"We brought some experiments dealing with sound and waves, which is something that's all around us and easily accessible," said Jay Ansher, the general education lab coordinator in ISU's Department of Physics. "And we have some fun and exciting hands-on demonstrations that usually younger audiences can really try out for themselves, which helps them to learn what we're describing." 

At the Kidzeum in Springfield, kids combine learning and fun through their after school STEAM camp. The camp is broken down by topic, with each day representing a different STEAM topic. Monday is science day, Tuesday is technology day, Wednesday is engineering day, Thursday is art day and Friday is math day. Kids can choose to come to a few days based on their interest, or sign up for the full week. 

"Exposure is the biggest thing to give them the opportunity to see topics, because sometimes at home parents don't want to deal with the mess, and we want to deal with the mess," said Tarika Roberts, Director of learning and public programs at the Kidzeum.

These are just some of the programs we highlighted for this year's STEM Minute series. 

More STEM Stories: 

STEM Minute | SKATE for Girls program teaches math, ice skating

STEM Minute | Sacred Heart-Griffin opens new engineering lab

STEM Minute | Introduction to healthcare careers

STEM Minute | She Builds program teaches girls about engineering

STEM Minute | Build your own mini catapult

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