Nationally known for its new science seminar, the Maine West science department offers courses to fill the demands on anyone's schedule. Offering a full three‑track program, the department answers the abilities of each individual. This three-track program includes the terminal program, reserved for students not considering college; the usual college preparatory program to meet general college requirements; and the accelerated program to offer more opportunities to the student with superior science abilities.

Maine focuses on the fields of chemistry, biology, and physics with the new PSSC physics. The courses basically stress laboratory work. "The lab is the center of each program," affirmed Mr. Loren Miller, head of the department. "Through experiences encountered in the lab, the student learns by inquiry and tends to become familiar with basic concepts rather than descriptive facts which will be useless to him later. By stressing principles, he grasps the background of the science and will be able to use this knowledge later, regardless of new discoveries in that particular field."

A science department such as this can rightly be proud of its modern facilities, featuring the best equipment available for high school use. Maine's weather station which records the weather every day in the school year was built and is operated by students taking the earth science course.

The National Science foundation in the past five years has given grants to groups of educators to develop and modernize science curriculum. "We at Maine," related Mr. Miller,, "now offer all of these programs, their common purpose being to enable the student to receive the higher learning available from only a few schools." For example, Maine offers a chemistry course enabling a gifted student to skip his first year of chemistry or biology in college to pursue a more advanced schedule.

At the present time, 10 students are working for Westinghouse scholarships, while approximately 23 students are actively working on projects in the science seminar. As well as participating with the Junior Illinois Academy of Science,  Maine West's highly trained science staff has the opportunity to advance its knowledge in specific fields by taking advantage of summer courses offered throughout the country for the past five years.