This week a Boston Globe reporter read NewtonSTEM posts here and here about online STEM education resources available for families remaining at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this week NewtonSTEM highlights several more online resources. Sydney Hager, a Boston University journalism major and Boston Globe reporter focusing on Newton, would like to interview parents of students using such online STEM resources to learn about their experience. Some of these resources are new offerings, created quickly from in-person curricula, and there will surely be a lot of experimentation and improvement as we all learn about learning remotely. Sydney would like to know about your initial experience, as well as your hopes and suggestions. If you would like to be interviewed, email Sydney Hager at smhager@bu.edu.
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Science Club for Girls: Available for All, At Home
Science Club for Girls has moved online, offering hands-on activities, videos, podcasts, and virtual tours each Monday for its STEM Activity for the Week on the SCFG Facebook page. Everyone — not just SCFG members — is invited to try out the experiments and post on social media about them with the tag #SCFGatHome. You can also email photos or videos of your activity to scfg@scienceclubforgirls.org for SCFG to share. SCFG also offers this list of at-home STEM activities, videos, podcasts, and other resources.
Northeastern Splash! has Moved to Online Classes
Each spring, NEPTUN (a Northeastern University student group) hosts Splash!, a free program for students in Grades 9-12 to take mini-classes led by Northeastern undergraduate and graduate students. This spring, Splash! has moved online to Digital Splash! STEM courses include:
New England Sci-Tech Offers Online Classes
The New England Sci-Tech STEM education center in Natick is offering online classes in science fact and fiction. Many of the classes are free for members, and admission is low-cost for everyone else.
- Amateur Radio License Course – Technician (all ages): Learn the basics of wireless technology and get an FCC radio license.
- Amateur Radio License Course – General (all ages): Upgrade to a higher level
- Ask a Fire Fighter (Grades 3-10): Learn about fire fighting and fire safety.
- Ham Radio Shop Talk (all ages): Ask a mentor how to use your radio.
- Yes, This is Rocket Science (ages 8-adult, or younger children accompanied by an adult): Learn concepts, design a rocket, run simulated flights, print parts lists and plans.
- Deep Thought (Grades 6-12): Discuss time travel, faster-than-light travel, teleportation, relativity, quantum mechanics, and more.
- Sci-Fi Fan Club – (grades 6-12): Discuss sci-fi literature and share sci-fi short stories.
- Dinner and a Sci-Fi Movie (grades 6-12): Discuss sci-fi movies and examine the plausible science behind the fiction.
NNHS STEMentors Club Offers Experiments to Try at Home
The Newton North HS STEMentors club was formed to bring STEM lessons to Newton students in Grades K-8 in schools, libraries, and expos. During COVID-19 #FlattenTheCurve closings, STEMentors is offering a montage of science experiments for kids to try at home through a video and an online document to demonstrate and explain each experiment. Send them feedback at stementors.nnhs@gmail.com.
Science Pickle: Free Game to Hone Your Skills in Questioning
Science Pickle offers a free game to help you hone your skills in questioning and finding patterns in numbers (in series, between pairs, and among triplets). John Pickle asks that anyone attaining Expert level with three or fewer misses should email him a screenshot at picklejohnmr@gmail.com. His website is chock full of information and challenges in questioning, observing, learning, earth systems, and software.
The Knowledge Society Offers Remote Learning Materials
The Knowledge Society, with offices in Cambridge and several other cities, is a 10-month accelerator program for curious and ambitious teens to learn how to use emerging technologies to solve big problems. It’s now offering these online resources for teens:
- Online sessions each week (sign up here), including access to recordings of previous sessions: Cellular agriculture, Brain-computer interfaces, Human longevity, Gene editing, and Artificial intelligence.
- Free online learning modules brain-computer interfaces, space technologies, and viruses (sign up here).
WGBH Distance Learning Resources: Broadcast and Streaming
The WGBH Distance Learning Center is broadcasting educational programming in science and social studies, noon to 5PM daily for Grades 6-12 on WGBH WORLD (Comcast 956, FiOS 473, RCN 94, Cox 807, Charter 181) and WGBY WORLD (over-the-air 57.2, Comcast 209, Spectrum 181 and 1275).
In addition, it offers on-demand streaming of education programs for Grades Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
Empow Studios Offers Parents Uninterrupted Time ;-)
Empow Studios is offering working parents 2-4 hours of uninterrupted time each weekday through its new virtual online STEM classes for kids to learn coding, digital arts, and design in small classes with live instructors. Classes are organized by grade level and offered several times a day, with emphasis ranging from exploring a wide range of interests to focusing on one, with the option to receive maximum 1:1 support.
Neo.Life: Online Conversation About Engineering Biology, Apr. 9
On April 9, 7-9PM, Manifest Boston will live-stream a conversation about engineering biology, highlighting a new book, Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species. Register here. The conversation will be in Long Conversation format (“a daisy chain of timed but spontaneous 2-person dialogues with no slides and no moderator”) featuring:
- Christina Agapakis — Synthetic biologist, artist, creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks
- Siranush Babakhanova — Transhumanist, founder of the MIT student group Xapiens
- Brian Bergstein — Deputy opinion editor, Boston Globe and coeditor of Neo.Life
- George Church — Harvard professor of health sciences and technology
- Juan Enriquez — Futurist, author, managing director of Excel Venture Management
- Steve Ramirez — Neuroscientist, professor at Boston University
- Jason Kelly — President of Ginkgo Bioworks
- Jen Reddy — Wired Ventures Co-Founder; NEO.LIFE Founder and CEO