All posts by newtonstem

Discovery Museum online speaker series: Teaching Today’s Kids To Spot Tomorrow’s Fake News, Feb. 9

Events, Virtual/Online

[CORRECTED DATE:}  On February 9, 7PM-8PM, the Discovery Museum‘s speaker series will present Dr. Susan Engel of the Psychology Department at Williams College speaking about Teaching Today’s Kids To Spot Tomorrow’s Fake News. It’s free with pre-registration, and an optional $5 donation is suggested. She notes that by starting early, giving children the intellectual tools to assess the credibility of information is neither as hard nor as amorphous as it might seem.

Northeastern Young Scholars Program: Summer STEM for Rising Seniors

Summer

Northeastern University’s Young Scholars Program will run June 26-August 3, 8:30AM-4:30PM, Mondays through Thursdays. It’s for Massachusetts high-school rising seniors, with priority given to students with low access to similar programs and live within commuting distance of Northeastern. It offers selected students laboratory research experience, career exploration and counseling, and an introduction to college life.  Applications (including short essay questions and teacher recommendations) are due March 15. For more information, email the Director for the Center for STEM Education, Claire Duggan, the 2021 YSP Coordinator, Nicolas Fuchs, or stem@northeastern.edu.

Broad Discovery Series: Biomedical science and machine learning: A two-way street, Feb. 7

Events

The next presentation in Broad Institute’s Broad Discovery Series of free, public lectures (formerly Science for All Seasons) will be on February 7, 6PM-7PM:  Biomedical science and machine learning: A two-way street. Broad Core Institute Member Caroline Uhler will explain how these two fields are coming together and how today’s biological questions are motivating new developments in machine learning to help find answers. Register to attend either online or in-person (415 Main Street, Cambridge).

NSHS students hold MathCounts Competition for Oak Hill

Accomplishments, Events

On Tuesday, January 10, a group of Newton South HS students organized the School MathCounts Competition at Oak Hill Middle School. This annual competition introduces middle-school students to mathematics competitions in a friendly and low-key way. The competition was well attended, with lots of enthusiasm among participants and organizers.

The NSHS students ran the competition were all alumni of both MathCounts and Oak Hill. They did live grading and presented certificates and small prizes to the top scorers: Ryder, Jason, Christian, Joshua, Hailey, Natalie, Claire, Jayden, Kenneth, Adi, Kinaan, and Deesha.

Many of these high-school students — Elena, Steven, Isaac, Alexander, Jared, Noah and Dhruv –have been giving back to their community by teaching extracurricular math at Oak Hill since their freshman year.

This year the Chapter MathCounts competitions are held in-person for the first time since 2020. On February 4, twelve members of the Oak Hill Mathcounts Club will participate in the MetroNorth chapter competition. Last year, the Oak Hill team placed third in the MetroNorth competition and sixth in the statewide MathCounts competition.

Application open for PROMYS: BU’s Summer Math Program for young (motivated) scientists

Opportunities

Applications are now available for Boston University’s PROMYS, a six-week (July 2-August 12) residential summer program for strongly motivated high-school students (ages 14-19) to explore in-depth the creative world of mathematics. About 80 students are selected from a nationwide/worldwide pool based on online applications consisting of solutions to challenging problem sets, school transcripts, teacher recommendations, and short essays explaining their interest in the program. The cost is on a sliding scale by family income, and full or partial need-based financial aid is available as necessary to ensure all who are selected may attend.  Applications are due March 5. For more information, see the FAQs and then contact promys@bu.edu.

MIT Women in Technology summer program for Grade 11, Apply by Jan. 15

Summer

MIT’s Women’s Technology Program is an intensive, four-week summer academic program for girls currently in Grade 11 to explore engineering through classes, labs, and projects (see video). This year, the Mechanical Engineering program will be offered on an in-person day (commuter) basis). There is no fee to apply or attend. (The Electrical Engineering and Computer Science program will not be offered this year.)

Applicants must have strong curiosity about Mechanical Engineering (but no direct experience in it yet) and also excel in math and science. Students with backgrounds underrepresented in STEM and/or few other opportunities to explore these fields are especially encouraged to apply. Applications are now available online and are due January 15. For more information, first check the program’s FAQ and then email wtp@mit.edu. See also their Resources page for additional ways to learn about engineering.

Discovery Museum: Free events for families with children with disabilities

Events

The Discovery Museum (177 Main Street, Acton) offers its Especially for Me program of free events for families with children with disabilities. All events are free but require registration. Registration links will appear on this page before each event, and you can register now for the January 21 event here. at the links here. The events for 2023 are:

  • Mornings for Families of Deaf, Hard of Hearing, & KODA Infants and Toddlers (closed to the public): Mondays 9:30AM-12:30PM on February 13, September 11
  • Sensory-Friendly Afternoons (open to the public, but no group visits are scheduled): Tuesdays 1:30-4:30PM on February 7, March 7, April 4, May 2, June 6, August 1, October 3, November 7, December 5
  • Evenings for Families with Deaf, Hard of Hearing, & KODA Children (closed to the public): Saturdays 5-8PM on March 11, May 6, December 2.
  • Evenings for Families with a Visual Impairment (closed to the public): Saturdays 5-8PM on February 4, October 7.
  • Autism-Friendly Evenings (closed to the public): Saturdays 5-8PM on January 7, March 18, April 1, June 3, September 16, October 21, December 16
  • All-Access Evenings (closed to the public): Saturdays 5-8PM on January 21, May 20, June 17, November 18