MIT’s SPARK offers students in Grades 7 and 8 a variety of short, interesting classes on the MIT campus over one weekend, March 14-15.  The registration lottery is open now through February 28, and until that deadline all course preferences will be treated equally in the lottery.  Students may choose from over 100 STEM courses*(plus other courses) and are encouraged to 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:How to Multiply Quickly
May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor
Computer (In)security
Intro to Programming in Python
Fun with Neural Networks
Bird Basics
How This Website Works
Dark Matter
Fun with Pigeonhole Principle
Symmetry
Abstract Linear Algebra
Intro to Climate Change
Introduction to Particle Physics
Crash Course in Machine Learning!
Make Your Personal Webpage
Insects:  Classification and Camouflage
In(tro)duction to Induction
Exploring Aerospace
Don’t Touch the King Cobra:  An Exploration of Venomous Creatures
Planetary Orbits
Bird Senses:  Smell, Taste, and Magnetic Sense
Worms and Wolverine:  Regenerating Bodies
Generating Functions
Your Brain & the Universe Both have Very Much in Common
Interactive Introduction to the Internet
The Engineer’s Bestiary
Sounds, Waves, and Electricity
The Marble-ously Oolite-ful World of Fossils
Special Relativity
Games with Ruby
Let’s Fight Gravity!
Arithmetic, Ancient Egyptian Style
Exoplanet Excavation
Computer Architecture:  Speed Run!
Game Theory and Emotions!
Meaty Your Rights
Many Worlds and Quantum Weirdness
Calculate Pi with Trains!
Uncountability of the Reals
Don’t Mess with Infinity
What is Civil Engineering?
Geobashing 101
Interactive Theorem Proving
Intro to Nuclear Power
Intro to Python
Hacking Flavor
Digital Logic with Little Bits
Brief History of the Universe
Peano’s Axioms – Why Arithmetic Works
Extreme Weather
eSports:  Competitive Games Done Quick
Hexaflexagons, Fractals, and Markov Chains
Homotopy Type Theory
How Do Computers Add?
A Brief History of Time
Descriptive Sequences
Quasicrystals
Combinatorial Game Theory
The Euclidean Algorithm
Hands-On Sorting Algorithms
Number Patterns in Symmetric Shapes
Chemistry of Pyrotechnics
Cryptography:  Making and Breaking Secret Codes
Spark Hackathon
Rubik’s Cube Patterns
Paper Engineering
A Short History of Artificial Intelligence
Applied Kerbal Space Program
General Relativity:  A Journey Through Spacetime
Environmentally Benighn Design and Manufacturing
Nuclear Apocalypse
Prove It!
High-Level Math in a Nutshell
Circuits and Electronics!
Extreme Walkie-Talkies:  Fun with Amateur Radio
How to Ocean Bowl
Rockets
What’s in a Sum?
Graphs and Games
The Science of Chocolate
(Geometric) Transformers:  Now in 2D! (And Black and White)
Introduction to Cryptography
A First Look at Probability
Counting Past Infinity
Mind of the Machine
Robust Cooperation in the Prisoner’s Dilemma:  Program Equilibrium via Provability Logic
Point-Set Topology
Finite Automata
Classical Physics
Imaginary Numbers — The Basics
Distributed Computing for Dummies
Geometry of Astronomy
Robots:  In and Out of Control
Conditional Probability
Bird Senses:  Vision and Hearing
How does Hearing Work?
How to Make Sense of Quantum Mechanics
Tech 101 4 Kids:  Learn Arduino!
Conceptual Calculus
The Science of 3D — Why Does It Pop Out Like That?
Algorithms of the Dummies, by the Dummies, for the Dummies
Demockracy (Voting Systems)