In an email sent to Chicago Children’s Museum on Friday, April 24th, the National Science Foundation informed Museum staff that the Somos Ingenieros (We Are Engineers) program, an initiative focused on co-designing engineering learning programs with young families, was “not in alignment with current NSF priorities." The letter declared grant funding for Somos Ingenieros terminated immediately and not subject to appeal. Without the promised federal funding, Somos Ingenieros will no longer be able to continue. Somos Ingenieros as a partnership between Loyola University, Chicago Children's Museum, and Palenque LSNA, to create playful, hands-on early engineering activities that were personally meaningful and culturally relevant to Chicago’s Latiné community. The ending of Somos Ingenieros isn't just a loss of a program for families at one school, or only Latiné families. It cuts a series of programs all CCM visitors would have experienced in our Tinkering Lab. Chicago Children’s Museum continues to collaborate with community organizations to promote the healthy development and wellbeing of children and families — including its award-winning Curiosity Classrooms and Playful Learning Landscapes — and is working with elected leaders to see if funding can potentially be reinstated. Learn more about the museum's initiatives and our mission at CCM.org. (fb)

Chicago Children's Museum is the Association of Children's Museums' 2025 winner of the 🏆 Outstanding Practice — Large Museum award 🏆 which recognizes excellence and leadership in the museum field. This award recognizes the Curiosity Classrooms initiative for creating museum-inspired STEAM learning environments inside of 25 Chicago Public Schools across the city. "The review committee was impressed by the scope of your project and the depth of the impact that it had on your community and are excited to see how it can be shared and replicated across the children’s museum community." Members of our leadership team were present at ACM's annual meeting, InterActivity 2025, to receive the award. Thank you, Association of Children's Museums, for this recognition! CCM's Curiosity Classrooms were also recognized with a Best Practices award by the Illinois Association of Museums' (IAM) on April 3. Learn more about Curiosity Classrooms at curiosityclassrooms.org! (fb)