The Experience
Innovation Grove gives middle schoolers a place to grow critical thinking, creativity and confidence through real-world challenges. Based in Champaign, with Chicago next. Here is what a week actually looks like.
Summer Academy · June 2027
In 2026 the academy ran four weeklong sessions at Next Generation School, two Technology and Engineering weeks and two Science weeks. Families picked one week, or one of each. Every day is project and collaboration based, and students move through the ideation, design, testing and improvement phases that real innovators use. The June 2027 dates will be released with pre-registration.
The 2027 summer academy, at a glance.
Two themed weeks: Technology and Engineering, and Science. Take both, or choose one.
Pre-registration opens January 1, 2027
Registration opens February 1, 2027
A second city for the academy.
A new summer academy is coming to the Chicagoland area.
Full details will be released soon: the venue, the dates, and how to register. Until then, Champaign shows what a week at the academy looks like, and the field notes below show what students actually make.
Venue, dates and tuition will be pinned here.
More locations on the way
Technology and Engineering weeks
Things that fly, spin and launch. Robotics, aviation, energy and the engineering behind them.
Science weeks
Forensics, the human body, chemistry and conservation, with a mystery to solve by Friday.
Tip Weeks of the same theme cover the same material. For the full experience, pick one week of each theme. They do not need to be back to back.
Field notes from summer 2026
Seven of the things students actually did last June, as they happened. Every one belongs to a module that runs across the week, so projects have room to fail, get fixed and get finished.
Science weeks
Students become forensic scientists and detectives, tasked with solving a mystery heist across the week. By deciphering codes and puzzles, collecting fingerprints, conducting interviews, analyzing data, building a fingerprint sensor and coding a sensor program, they work together as a team to solve the crime.
Technology and Engineering weeks
Students dig into structural engineering and physics to construct, experiment with and test their very own catapults. It all builds to a final tournament, where teams compete to see who can launch their projectiles into every one of the targets.
Science weeks
Learning about DNA can be complicated and dry, but not when you get to build your own creature. From concept, to a physical DNA helix model, to designing a species of their own with AI, students go through the whole process of a genetic engineer. They even get to test their creatures in virtual classroom battles.
Science weeks
What is the chemistry behind natural dyes and clay? Students become chemical engineers as they learn where dyes come from and how they stick, then experiment their way to their own perfect clay ratio. A little cooking and a little chemistry, mixed together.
Science weeks
Students are tasked to become conservationists and design a hillside that prevents excessive runoff and erosion. The biggest challenge: they have to build the hill themselves, out of recycled materials.
Technology and Engineering weeks
Students build their own rendition of Flappy Bird in the Unity game engine. Across three sessions they learn the basic physics and logic of game design: obstacles, collisions, scoring systems and customization. By Friday there is a game to play, and it is theirs.
Both weeks
An expert a day: a weeklong series led by invited scientists and engineers who show students the modern tools of their fields and how they are used. Aviation, robotics and agriculture in the Technology and Engineering weeks; neuroimaging, kinesiology and medicine in the Science weeks.
In 2026 our guest instructors came from the Beckman Imaging Center, Animal Sciences and Kinesiology at UIUC, from a diagnostics lab in Washington DC, and from the neuroscience labs on campus.
The rhythm
Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 4 PM, with an 8 AM drop-off and a 5 PM pick-up at no extra charge for families who need them. Before 9 and after 4 is free-range time: sports, games, arts and crafts, and extra time on projects.
Summer 2027 pre-registration opens January 1, 2027, and registration opens February 1. Want the first email?
Keep me postedRegistration is open. Places are limited.
Register for Summer 2027 2026 catalog (PDF) Hear from the parentsAfterschool · Spring 2027
A new afterschool program is coming to Champaign in spring 2027: once a week, 3:30 to 5:30 PM, at Next Generation School, for grades 5 to 8.
The same hands-on spirit, fitted to a school week.
Winter Academy · Winter 2027
The summer format, condensed for the break.
A shorter run of the same kind of hands-on, build-it-yourself projects the summer academy is known for. Dates, location and pricing are being finalized now and will be announced this winter.
A few days over the break, hands-on from the first morning.
