The Newton Free Library will hold its 4th annual STEAM Expo for all ages on Saturday, July 15, 12-3PM. Last year, over 1,500 attended, and this year’s Expo is expected to be even bigger. This STEM + Arts Expo is a gathering of tech enthusiasts, traditional crafters, artists, musicians, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, museums, engineers, and students. This year’s Expo includes a giant inflatable planetarium, LED light-up necklaces, an augmented-reality sandbox, and much, much more.
Monthly Archives: June 2017
Newton Free Library’s Design Squad: 6 Summer Tuesday Evenings for Grades 5-7
The Newton Free Library is recruiting tweens entering Grades 5-7 for Design Squad Global, to be held on six summer Tuesdays evenings (July 11, 18, 25, August 1, 8, 15) at 7PM in second floor Teen Area. Each week, the Design Squad will take on a new engineering challenge, some of which will involve designing solutions to global problems. There will be lots of problem-solving, creativity, thinking outside the box, and hanging out with other like-minded kids. The Library is partnering with similar clubs in South Africa and Swaziland to share videos back and forth, share design ideas, and get to know each other over these six weeks. Register online for all 6 sessions.
Highland Street Foundation: Free Fun Fridays at Museums This Summer
The Highland Street Foundation is bringing back Free Fun Fridays, during which it provides support for 85 selected museums and cultural venues open to everyone for free on specified Fridays. Here are the STEM-oriented Free Fun Fridays on the schedule this summer:
- June 23: The Discovery Museums
- June 30: Boston Children’s Museum, MIT Museum, EcoTarium
- July 7: Amelia Park Children’s Museum, Children’s Museum in Easton
- July 14: The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, Harvard Museums of Science & Culture
- July 28: Arnold Arboretum, Wenham Museum, Tower Hill Botanic Garden
- August 4: Children’s Museum at Holyoke
- August 11: Franklin Park Zoo, Cape Cod Maritime Museum
- August 18: Buttonwood Park Zoo, Cape Cod Children’s Museum, Berkshire Museum
- August 25: The Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River, Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Heritage Museums & Gardens
New ‘Wicked Smart’ Exhibit at Museum of Science Highlights Local Innovation
Last week, Boston’s Museum of Science unveiled a new permanent exhibit, Wicked Smart, to showcase innovations developed in Massachusetts. It’s in the Blue Wing and is included in regular admission to the museum. On display are: Particle Mirror interactive special effects, RoboBees flying micro-robots, Freedom Chair off-road wheelchair, Daktari CD4 blood cell counter for HIV/AIDS patients, G3PD 3-D printed glass, and Cheetah 2 autonomous running and jumping robot.
Babson College Seeks Part-Time Physics Teacher
Babson College in Wellesley seeks a part-time faculty member with a master’s or doctoral degree to teach two sections of a Physics course focused on semiconductor physics as applied to consumer electronics and managing electricity-delivery grids. The courses will meet Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:15-2:50PM and 3:00-4:35PM. Contact Chuck Winrich at cwinrich@babson.edu or 781-239-5583.
WPI STEM Center Seeks Post-Doctoral Fellow for Research in Pre-K STEM Education
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s STEM Education Center seeks a post-doctoral fellow in STEM education to participate its Seeds of STEM program to develop and promote an innovative STEM curriculum for pre-kindergartners. For more information, contact Dr. Mia Dubosarsky at mdubosarsky@wpi.edu.
LigerBots Intro Night for Students & Their Parents, June 12
The LigerBots — Newton’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team spanning both high schools — will host Intro Night on June 12, 6:30-8:30PM at Newton South HS (in the Wood Shop, Room 9170, to the right of the auditorium) for prospective team members and their parents to learn about FRC and the engineering, business, and community outreach activities of the team. Attendees can drive the LigerBots robot, use design software and power tools, make marketing materials, participate in engineering-challenge games, and eat dessert!
Thomas Edison Invention Challenge, Due June 19
The Edison Innovation Foundation is sponsoring an Invention Challenge, with entries due June 19. Use any or all of the following to create something new and unique: a fork, 10 inches of string, a small bar of soap, a corkscrew, a plastic drinking cup, and/or any small, portable kitchen item of your choosing. Email a drawing or photo of your invention, with a few words of description, to info@thomasedison.org by June 19. Four winners will receive gift cards of $100, $75, $50, and $25.
Amateur Radio Relay League Field Day at Dexter Southfield, June 24-25
The Clay Center Amateur Radio Club — a public outreach STEM program of the Dexter Southfield school — will host the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), Field Day on June 24 (3-6PM) and June 25 (9AM-Noon) at the Clay Center Observatory, on the Dexter Southfield campus (20 Newton Street in Brookline; 5th floor). The ARRL Field Day is the most popular on-the-air operating event in Amateur Radio, involving tens of thousands of amateur radio operators from across the country and lots of public demonstrations. It’s free and open to the public, and you do not need a radio license to participate. If you’re bringing a group of more than five people, please email Bob Phinney to let him know.
Register for Destination Imagination 2017-18
Registration is now open for Newton’s Destination Imagination program for the 2017-18 school year. It’s a volunteer-run STEAM program for Grades K-12. Teams of 2-7 students form in September and address various design challenges (see preview) throughout the year in preparation for regional tournaments in the early spring and potentially state and global competitions in May. Details are in this webinar. The registration fee of $135 is reduced to $95 for those volunteering to co-manage a team.