An engineered bazooka designed to launch candy, a 3D-printed novel board game, an ecological experiment with fish, and a magnetically powered trebuchet. You may guess that these are all projects designed by undergraduate or even graduate level students for a class. However, these projects are the curiosity-driven creations of middle schoolers as part of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) TRAIN (Transdisciplinary Research Across Institutional Near-peers) program, which just completed its third successful year.

When one imagines what 6th-8th grade students might be interested in, these projects may not immediately come to mind: studying metabolism in the Minecraft universe, investigating whether toxic frogs know they are toxic, printing 3D corals, building a robot that can deliver snacks or one that can plant seeds, and designing an anti-drone weapons device. And yet, these six studies were successfully completed by students from Franklin STEAM Academy.

Starting from September 2020, six groups of 38 students from Franklin STEAM Academy in Champaign met every Tuesday afternoon after school to conduct research on important topics. The project, called “STEAM TRAIN,” involved the 6th-8th grade students, researchers from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and a dozen students from University Laboratory High School, or Uni High. The projects concluded in May 2021.

Every Tuesday afternoon after school, six groups of around 24 excited Franklin STEAM Academy students hang around online a bit longer to conduct independent research on topics of import to them via a scientific exploration project called “STEAM TRAIN.” Mentoring the 6th–8th grade students are some near peers—Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) undergrads, grad students, and post docs, plus—even closer in age to the target group—a dozen University Laboratory High School (Uni High) students.

This year, the STEAM TRAIN (Transdisciplinary Research Across Institutional Near-Peers) project conceived by the IGB outreach staff was one of five projects awarded seed funding and up to two years of subsequent support from the Community + Research Partnership Program (CO+RE). The CO+RE grant represents the first awarded grant for outreach endeavors at the IGB.