STEM Inspiration Organization will host Sights Set on Science, a free STEM career seminar, on March 25, 2PM-3:30PM in at Hyatt House Waltham (54 Fourth Ave., Waltham). Newton South HS student Jack Li is president and founder of the organization. At the event, educational consultant, tutor, and instructor Alexandra Peruta will speak about STEM opportunities and how to gain experience in STEM. Sign up to receive detailed information. For more information, email  steminspirationorganization@gmail.com.

At this year’s Think Big STEM networking/inspiration event yesterday at the Newton Free Library, 80 middle- and high-school students heard practical, inspirational talks by Dr. Oneeka Williams and Angela Pitter, then met in small groups with 15 adult mentors in a wide range of STEM careers. Many thanks to mentors for their care and advice, to the LigerBots for all kinds of assistance, to Cabot’s Ice Cream for refreshments, and to Angela Pitter of Livewire Collaborative for broadcasting the event via Facebook Live on the Library’s Teens page.

MIT’s SPARK offers students in Grades 7 and 8 a variety of short, interesting classes on the MIT campus over one weekend, March 17-18.  The registration lottery is open now through March 4, and until that deadline all course preferences will be treated equally in the lottery.  Starting March 5, any remaining seats will be open first-come/first-served.  Students may choose from over 150 courses and must register on their own.  A $40 fee covers two days of classes and lunch and lots of walk-in activities.  Generous financial aid is available.  For more information not covered here, email spark@mit.edu.   Here are the STEM courses:

• Kerbal Space Program — Relax, It’s Just Rocket Science
• Exploring Aerospace!
• Understanding IQ with Computational Neuroscience
• Lasers 101
• Geoengineering and Climate Change
• Microbiome 101: What’s in your poop?
• The Plague
• Don’t Touch the King Cobra: An Exploration of Venomous Creatures
• Evolution revolution: why Darwin was wrong
• What makes a dinosaur a dinosaur?
• Are you a SuperTaster? The Neuroscience of Taste
• Intro to MRI- the anatomy of a kiwi
• Synthetic Biology with Intermittent Soccer Bowling Breaks
• What’s in the Vial? An Introduction to Bioanalytical Techniques
• Babies and Brains
• CRISPR: Hacking the Genome
• Dazed and Confused: The Science and Art of Illusions
• Mathematical Gems
• Cellular Automata
• Probability Paradoxes, Puzzles and Games
• All’s Fair In Chess and Cake
• Mathematical Modeling
• All about symmetry
• How to Win Games
• Bridges, Maps, and Networks: An Introduction to Graph Theory
• Hats On
• Math Meets Art!
• Finite Automata
• Introduction to Trading
• Clever Codes
• Surreal Numbers and Games
• Detecting fake news
• Fun with groups
• Atomic Theory I: The Basics
• Quantum Computing
• How do you generate electricity from water?
• Atomic Theory II: Modern Concepts
• A Brief Tour of the Stratosphere
• Atomic Theory III: Mostly Particle Physics
• Let’s Talk about Weather!
• Anything you could want to know about the oceans
• Your classical intuition is wrong!
• Science of Swimming: 6 ways to dramatically improve your swimming skills using basic physiology and physics concepts
• Special Relativity
• Exploring Electricity and Magnetism; The Basics
• How We Make Energy
• Dark Matter: A History and Where We Are Now
• Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
• Sounds, Waves, and Electricity
• Cool Experiments You Can Do in the Home
• All about ocean water!
• Intro to Astronomy!
• Biochemistry at its finest [MEDICINE and FOOD]

Boston’s Museum of Science has resumed Free Film Fridays in March, thanks to MathWorks. All shows in the Mugar Omni Theater are free on Fridays this month. Tickets are first-come/first-served at the box office on the day of the show.  Members may reserve up to five days ahead. Current shows are:

• Mysteries of China
• Dream Big: Engineering Our World
• Amazon Adventure 
• National Parks Adventure 

The fourth annual Sharon Math & Science Tournament is open to all students in Grades 6-8 throughout the region. It’s a day of hands-on design challenges, science labs, science quizzes, and out-of-the-box math problems.  It will be held April 7 at Sharon Middle School in Sharon, MA. You can register in teams of 4-6 members or register as individuals (who will be placed into teams) by the March 12 deadline. The cost is $10 per contestant. For more information, email Erinne Silver at e_wortham@sharon.k12.ma.us.

Boston Tech Mom (“a parent’s guide to raising a future techie”) is a great resource for all things STEM around Boston — including her monthly posts about free or low-cost STEM Events for Kids in Boston. Here’s her March list of STEM events.

Reminder:  Boston Tech Mom’s Boston STEM Fair will be held March 11, 1PM-4PM, at the Embassy Suites hotel (550 Winter Street, Waltham).

John Aviste, founder of Edge on Science, will bring his telescope (with professional solar filter) to Joan Lorentz Park, in front of the Cambridge Public Library (449 Broadway, Cambridge), on March 10, 9AM-1PM, for the public to have free viewings of solar surface features, plasma eruptions, and perhaps sunspots.

Boston’s Museum of Science will celebrate Pi Day, March 14, with a series of events, starting with the Boston Pi Party (pie toss) at Boston’s City Hall Plaza on March 10, 11AM-1PM.  Pi Party participation is free, and T-shirts for the event are available for a donation of $31.41 to the Museum of Science.