In a recent study analyzing 14 key metrics demonstrating innovative educational practices, Illinois ranked fifth — establishing it as a leader in innovative education.

The metrics included factors such as remote learning accessibility and project-based learning, which prepares students for the real world while in school and improves their creativity and flexibility. Other factors included the number of schools in each state offering Advanced Placement courses, the number of universities with test-optional policies, the number of education charities in each state, and how many resource center awards each state has received.

Each year, Sept. 3 is recognized as national skyscraper day! Did you know the first skyscraper was built in Chicago?

In 1884, Chicago architect William LeBaron Jenny designed the first skyscraper, which stood nine stories high, and was home to the Home Life Insurance Building. Itwas the first structure to stand on an iron frame. The building stood for 46 years until its demolition in 1931.

The Chicago Water and Air Show is returning this weekend to the Chicago lakefront Aug. 10-11 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

This event started in 1959, and has grown to be the largest and oldest free admission air show in the United States. Each year, the show sees over two million people on the city’s lakefront to the military and its pilots perform stunts above Lake Michigan.

Since the 1920s, the iconic Butter Cow Sculpture has been the unofficial mascot of the Illinois State Fair. Each year, a sculptor is selected to create the butter cow using hundreds of pounds of unsalted butter, which serves to highlight the importance of Illinois’ agriculture and history.

The first Butter Cow was sculped in 1922 by J.E. Wallace, which honored the image of a world record holding jersey cow named Raleigh’s Sibyl. Raleigh’s Sibyl was owned and cared for by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Raleigh’s Sibyl earned her record by producing 18,847 pounds of milk in one year.

The Illinois State Fair has been around since 1853, held for the first time in Springfield at a wooded 20-acre site located one mile west of the Old State Capitol.

Since its beginning, the fair has focused on promoting Illinois’ innovation, methods of agriculture and raising livestock. It has also displayed Illinois’ leading improvements in labor, industry, education, arts and sciences. The fair was also intended to provide an opportunity for famers to exchange ideas.