Monthly Archives: September 2019

Mass. STEM Week Challenge: Zero Waste

Events, Opportunities

Any Massachusetts K-12 school may register by September 18 to participate in the Zero Waste MA STEM Week Challenge — a part of Massachusetts STEM Week. Project Lead the Way and One8 Foundation’s Mass STEM Hub are sponsoring this real-world design challenge and offering educators free curriculum, training, and opportunities to connect with industry. Themes vary by grade level:

  • K-2: Exploring food waste, understanding composting and recycling, and reducing your “foodprint”
  • 3-5: Learning about novel energy solutions, understanding unintended consequences, and prototyping a way for your school to use cleaner energy sources
  • 6-8: Understanding the impact of microplastics on the environment, animals, and our bodies and creating processes to decrease their spread
  • 9-12: Exploring electronic waste and ecotoxicology, understanding the implications of the technology we use every day, and prototyping novel ways to refurbish used technology hardware.

Educators may register here by September 18. Volunteers may register here to be mentors and judges. For more information or to offer your own ideas, email stemweek@mass-stemhub.org.

Green Newton — Schools Connections

Resources

Green Newton created its School Connections initiative two years ago to promote environmental sustainability in and beyond Newton classrooms. It’s currently working with seven of Newton’s 15 elementary schools, one of four middle schools, and both high schools to create school gardens, teach sustainability, and develop awareness of environmental challenges and solutions. The group also sponsors Students for a Greener World — an organization of Newton middle- and high-school students interested in making a positive environmental impact and teaching kids about the environment. For more information, sign up for the School Connections e-newsletter and/or email schoolconnections@greennewton.org.

“e” inc. Fundraiser: Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Oct. 19

Events

“e” inc. — Boston’s environment science learning and action center — will host the Wild & Scenic Film Festival on October 19, 6:30PM-10:30PM, at Atlantic Wharf (290 Congress Street, Boston) as a fundraiser for its after-school and day-school programs, as well as for its hands-on planet-science learning for young children in the Boston area. Tickets are $58.61 for an evening of wine, food, and film.

Free Admission to Museums, Sept. 21, from Smithsonian Magazine

Events, Opportunities

Smithsonian Magazine will sponsor Museum Day on September 21, when you can visit any of 50 museums in Massachusetts, 14 in New Hampshire, and 24 in Rhode Island. Go online to search for a museum and print out a ticket good for free general admission for two people. STEM-oriented museums that are participating include:

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Apply for Youth Cities L3 Innovation Challenge, Oct. 2-Nov. 13

Opportunities

The L3 Innovation Challenge is a design challenge bootcamp hosted by Youth Cities to immerse middle- and high-school students in innovation, design thinking, entrepreneurial problem-solving, and prototyping. It’s like a 24-hour hackathon, but it’s spread out over seven weeks, during which students play the role of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Innovation Team to address a specified challenge. It has mandatory meetings every Wednesday from 5PM to 8PM from October 2 – November 13 at LabCentral in Cambridge. Pizza is provided. The cost is $570, and need-based scholarships are available. Apply by September 25.

Separately, you can also sign up for notice of Youth Cities’ monthly mini-hacks, which are two-hour white-board brainstorming sessions facilitated by local entrepreneurs and open to middle- or high-school teens, college students, entrepreneurs, educators, public officials, and other working professionals. They’re held at the Cambridge Innovation Center on the second Thursday of each month (except July-August) at 4:30-6:30PM,  the same time that the CIC hosts Venture Cafe.

BioBuilder September Workshops for Ages 10-14: Kids Who Clone

Events

BioBuilder Learning Lab will offer the following workshops at LearningLab (700 Main Street, Cambridge) for students in ages 10-14 (ages 8-9 may participate with a parent or guardian in the lab). There is a $35 cost per student and no charge for chaperones attending with them. Click the dates below for details and to register. For more information, email Kelley Klor at kelley@biobuilder.org.

N. E. Aquarium: Ship-to-Shore: Exploring the Marine Monument in Our Backyard, Sept. 12

Events

The New England Aquarium’s free public lecture series will host Ship-to-Shore: Exploring the Marine Monument in Our Backyard on September 12, 7PM-8:30PM in the aquarium’s IMAX theater. NOAA research scientists will provide a virtual tour of wildlife found in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument with footage from a deep-sea submersible. Cash bar and pop-up monument exhibit available 6PM-7PM. Register here.