Here are two additions to last week’s list of summer STEM programs that have registrations open:
On Saturday, May 21, the Latino STEM Alliance will hold its annual Robotics Competition & Science Activities Fair from 10AM to 2PM at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, 650 Dudley Street in Boston. Besides a Boston-wide robotics competition (with 20 teams representing 12 Boston schools and community centers), this free event will feature fun, hands-on science and engineering activities for the whole family offered by partners from SIM Boston, KRONOS, National Grid, and other sponsoring organizations. Here’s a short video of last year’s event. Register online to help the event organizers plan. To apply to be an exhibitor, complete this form.
The Latino STEM Alliance works with host schools to offer after-school robotics programs in Boston to foster leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, persistence, and communication skills. Its curriculum includes computer programming, the engineering process, and basic physics, dynamics, and geometry. Newton’s Chuck Hurwitz is a long-time member of its leadership team. Tax-deductible donations are appreciated. For more information, contact Event Coordinator Tariana Little (TarianaVLittle@live.com) or Executive Director Amanda Martinez (Amanda.Martinez@latinostem.org).
This spring, the Newton Schools Foundation launched a fundraising campaign to support the NPS Calculus Project, with an anonymous donor willing to match up to $25,000 in donations. The Calculus Project has been successful since its start in 2012, working in all of Newton’s middle and high schools to have more African American, Hispanic, and low-income students successfully complete calculus in high school, as a path to success in college. The program provides intensive, small-group summer classes, enrichment activities, and year-round mentoring and tutoring. This spring’s campaign has reached 33% of its goal and welcomes your tax-deductible donation to support the Calculus Project’s summer program, tutoring, enrichment activities, and supplies.
Science educators and enthusiasts are invited to attend any of a series of Workshops in Space Exploration (WiSE) at Tufts University:
The cost is $300 per four-day workshop, with scholarships available to Massachusetts educators. The workshop presenters, Bill Waller and Danilo Marchesini, are professional astronomers and educators who are dedicated to sharing the wonders of the cosmos with people of all ages and abilities. To get on the mailing list or for more information, email williamhwaller@gmail.com.
Here are several sources for finding summer STEM programs for kids:
We’ve recently learned that registration is open for these:
At the FIRST New England District Championships in Hartford this weekend, the Newton Ligerbots again won the Innovation in Control award, as they did in a similar event in Boston recently. The award is sponsored by Rockwell Automation to celebrate “an innovative control system or application of control components – electrical, mechanical, or software – to provide unique machine functions.”
Any team of 1-10 students (Grades 4-12) with an adult coach (parent, teacher) may enter the KidWind Challenge in an attempt to create the most efficient, functional, and innovative wind turbine. Register for free. Plan, build, and test your design. Then bring it to Challenge Day at UMass Lowell, April 30, 9AM-3PM to run it in the wind tunnel and compete for prizes and a chance to be invited to the nationals.
Framingham State University’s Christa McAuliffe Center will hold its second annual Science on State Street festival on April 23, 10AM-2PM, on its campus (directions). It’s free and open to all ages, with hands-on activities (in biology, chemistry, physics, food science, robotics and engineering), presentations by FSU faculty and invited scientists, conversations and performances that explore the interaction between science and the arts, and planetarium programs. There will be a live sky planetarium presentation at 10AM for children 5 and younger, a do-it-yourself Rube Goldberg machine, and opportunities to build a battery, program a robot, interact with exotic insects, explore chemistry, and meet the author of “The Secret Case of the Space Station Stowaways.”
At the annual meeting of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers, on Saturday, April 30 at 9AM at Wellesley College, there will be two featured talks:
The talks are aimed at chemistry teachers. Admission is free, and membership in NEACT is encouraged. RSVP to Leslie Bishop (leslie.bishop@regiscollege.edu) by April 24.
Each spring, Olin College of Engineering holds two public events to showcase the work of its students: