The Northeastern Section of the National Chemistry Society will celebrate National Chemistry Week (October 16-22) with these events:

October 14:  Deadline for the ACS National Illustrated Poem Contest:  Students in Grades K-12 may write and illustrate a poem using the theme, “Solving Mysteries Through Chemistry.”  Poems may be up to 40 words of haiku, limerick, ode, ABC, free verse, end rhyme, or blank verse.  At the local level, a $25 Amazon gift certificate will be awarded for each of several categories (DNA, fingerprints, art forgeriers, pigments, and invisible ink) and will be entered at the national level. See the rules and send your entry with a completed entry form to Dr. Raymond Lam, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay, MA 02532, rlam@maritime.edu.

October 16 at the Museum of Science Boston (admission to the museum is required):

• 1PM and 4PM:  Phyllis A. Brauner Memorial Lecture by Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri, who captivates audiences with scientific demonstrations, in Cahner’s Theatre.  Free tickets available by advance registration to secretary@nesacs.org by October 11.
• 1PM-5PM:  Hands-on Activities related to Forensics Science

October 22 at Boston Children’s Museum (admission to the museum is required):

• 11AM-4PM:  Solving Mysteries Through Chemistry:  Solve a crime committed at the museum by taking fingerprints, analyzing body types, using chromatography, etc.

Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) at Wellesley College will present a free lunch-time seminar, Deciphering the Code: Girls in the STEM Pipeline, on October 20, 12:30-1:30PM, at Cheever House (828 Washington Street, Wellesley).  Speakers are Georgia Hall and Kathryn Wheeler of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time.  Coffee and tea provided; bring your lunch.  Or listen to the recorded audio online. For more information or to confirm this or other lunch-time seminars, contact WCW at news-wcw@wellesley.edu or 781-283-2500.

Acera School will host its Fall Innovator Symposium on October 20, 6:30-8:30PM on its campus (5 Lowell Avenue in Winchester).  It’s free and open to the public of all ages.  Meet scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs from MIT Media Lab and Geobiology Lab, as well as Boston University’s Social Development and Learning Lab.  Activities include culinary computing, robotic creations, programmable tattoos, stain your own cells, woodworking challenge, and an Ig Noble humor show.

The Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers annual conference will be held November 3-4 at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough.  The program includes two keynotes, 67 workshops, two sessions for sharing best practices, and an exhibit hall.   Registration for two days costs $130 for members, $150 for non-members, or $50 for retired or students (with discounts for one day) and covers breakfast and lunch.

Tufts University’s Center for Engineering Education and Outreach seeks volunteers (ages 4-8; accompanied by a parent/guardian) to test LEGO robots made by high-school and college students visiting from Denmark.  Kids and their parents will be asked to test and rate the robotic toys made by the students using LEGO EV3 Robotics kits.  Siblings are welcome, too.  This event is free and open to the first 20 families to register.  This Robotic Toy Testing will be held Thursday, October 20, 3-4PM at CEEO (200 Boston Avenue, Suite G810, Medford).

MIT’s Edgerton Center holds free Science on Saturday programs approximately monthly during the school year for elementary, middle, and high school students — as well as their parents and teachers.  Each is a fun, one-hour, interactive presentation beginning at 10AM in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge.  Kids under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. No pre-registration is necessary but seating is limited and first-come, first-seated.  The upcoming programs are:

• October 15:  Mad Science
• December 3: Physics
• February 4, 2017:  Your Developing Brain
• March 4, 2017: Chemistry
• April 1, 2017: How the Internet Works
• October 14, 2017: Biotechnology
• December 2, 2017:  (Stay tuned!)

The BostonTechMom blog offers its October list of technology-oriented events for kids in the Boston area.

Administrators, principals, teachers, school counselors, and business professionals are invited to learn about K-12 curricular programs in engineering, computer science, and biomedical science at Project Lead the Way‘s free STEM professional development conference on October 20, 8:30AM-2PM, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Salisbury Laboratories (directions).  Register by October 11.  For more information, contact Terry Adams at pltw@wpi.edu or 508-831-5198.