The NASA TechRise Challenge invites teams of students in Grades 6-12 to design experiments to be run in a high-altitude balloon. A TechRise team may have any number of students, and all team members must be from the same school. Each team must have one Team Lead who is a teacher or school employee. Teams must submit their designs by October 24, and the winning teams will be build their designs in 2023. Winners will be announced on January 12. Sixty teams with winning designs will each receive a grant of $1,500 to build their experiments, technical support and office hours with mentors, as well as an assigned spot on a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon.
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Broad Discovery Center museum previews Oct. 3-6, opens Oct. 31
The Broad Discovery Center is a new, free, public, educational space about how researchers at the Broad Institute and elsewhere tackle some of the toughest questions in biomedicine to understand human health and disease, and create new approaches for treatments. It’s located on the first floor of the Broad Institute’s headquarters (415 Main Street in Kendall Square, Cambridge). Exhibits address exhibits psychiatric conditions, cancer, infectious diseases, heart disease, diabetes, and rare genetic conditions. You can get a preview of its five galleries during the Cambridge Science Festival, October 3-6. It will open during regular business hours starting October 31 and will be staffed 10AM-3PM.
HMSC celebrates National Fossil Day, Oct. 8
Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will celebrate National Fossils Day on October 8, 1PM-4PM, with a full schedule of short talks and table-top presentations for all ages about invertebrate paleontology and evolution. The program features paleontologists who speak Spanish and English. The cost is included in the cost of museum admission. Free parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage (map).
Empow Studios: Early discount for Winter classes until Oct. 14
Empow Studios is now registering for Winter classes (December 5 – March 11) and is offering a $75 discount (with code STEMSKILLS) until October 14. Popular classes include Tech & Design Survey, YouTube, Minecraft, Roblox, Scratch, Python, and Robotics with Sphero. Registrations may be changed or canceled until two weeks before classes start.
Science Club for Girls seeks in-person Mentors
Science Club for Girls is about to start its Fall programs and seeks to bring on additional Volunteer Mentors for SCFG’s in-person Science Clubs at Mother Caroline Academy (515 Blue Hill Avenue, Boston) on Thursdays, 2:30PM-4:30PM. Dates are October 6, 13, 20, 27, November 3, 10, 17, and December 1. Apply here to join SCFG’s group of over 100 Volunteer Mentors. For more information, email Cristina Ullmann at cullmann@scienceclubforgirls.
Grades 9-12: Register Now for Northeastern Splash!, In-Person, Nov. 12
Each fall and spring, NEPTUN (a Northeastern University student group) hosts Splash!, a free program for students in Grades 9-12 to take fun and informative mini-classes led by Northeastern undergraduate students. This year, Splash! will again be held in-person at Ryder Hall (11 Leon St, Boston) on the Northeastern campus, on November 12, 8:45AM-6:40PM. The $0 cost includes free pizza and a T-shirt. Registration is now open and is first-come/first-served and requires setting up a free student account. For more information, see the FAQs or contact nu.neptun@gmail.com. Among the 26 in-person Splash! courses this year are these STEM offerings:
- Epigenetics: Why everything you know about genetics is wrong
- I’m So Tired: Why You Feel Like You Never Get A Good Night of Sleep
- Plant-on-Plant Violence
- Glowing Plants? Yes, Glowing Plants.
- Get Some Structure in Your Life: Modelling the Cytoskeleton
- Exploring the Engineering Design Process with Rube Goldberg Machines
- Playful Peep Science
- [ACCESS_GRANTED]: 1N7R0 70 H4CK1NG
- The Key to Unlocking Data: An Intro to Database Management
- Can We Make You Enjoy Math?
- Let there be Lights!
- 👀😲👍 – Emoji: How They Work and Why They Break Everything
Cambridge Science Festival: Expanded Schedule and Venues, Oct. 3-9
The Cambridge Science Festival has expanded its schedule, now October 3-9 across more venues in Cambridge. Scan and search the Festival Guide of events — 116 so far, with perhaps more to be added soon. All events are free and open to the public, but several have limited capacity and require advance reservations, via links in the Festival Guide.
The original schedule of events, all at the Kendall/MIT Open Space (292 Main Street), has a different theme each day:
- October 6: Science + Climate — dedicated to all things environmental, renewable, and sustainable
- October 7: Science + Food — the latest in edible chemistry, at a “farmer’s market of the future”
- October 8: Science + Fashion — runway shows, exhibitions, discussion and interaction with designers, makers, engineers, brands, artisans, influencers and the public
- October 9: Science + Carnival — a family-friendly, science-themed, Great American Carnival, noon-4PM featuring a Main Stage, Midway, Side Shows, Walk-abouts, with “competitions and challenges, interactive engineering and hands-on experiments, design workshops and demonstrations, from telescopes to microscopes, from celestial bodies to synthetic bodies, lasers, DNA, the brain, from marine biology to biological machines, from circuit-boards to circus-shows… and very many robots!”
Congressional App Challenge — Submissions Due Nov. 1
All Massachusetts members of Congress have joined other House colleagues in hosting a Congressional App Challenge in their Congressional Districts. Students in Grades 6-12 may register, as individuals or in teams of up to four, in the Congressional District in which they live or attend school. Newton is in District MA04 (Representative Jake Auchincloss), where so far five teams have registered. The competition is open to all eligible students regardless of coding experience (see CAC flyer and CAC rules).
Apps may be created in any language, on any platform, on any theme or purpose. They must be submitted by November 1 at 12PM. Submissions will be evaluated by local judges who work in academic, software, and entrepreneurial fields. The winning app from each participating Congressional District will be announced in December and will be highlighted online and in an exhibit in the Capitol.
Register by Oct. 1 for Transportation YOU Summit, Ages 8-18, Oct. 15
WTS-Boston’s outreach group, Transportation YOU will host the 2022 Transportation YOU Boston Summit for all gender identities, with a focus on girls, on October 15, 10AM-3PM at Emmanuel College (400 Fenway, Boston). It will introduce students to transportation planning and engineering and feature hands-on activities workshops led by transportation professionals. It’s free, and lunch is included. Registration is required and will close on October 1 or when 100 have registered. For more information, contact Emily Buck at 508-823-2245 or transportationyouboston@gmail.com.
NCWIT ‘Aspirations in Computing’ Awards, Grades 9-12: Apply by Oct. 20
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) recognizes high-school and college students, as well as educators, with annual awards. Applications are open now until October 20 for the Aspirations in Computing (AiC) awards for young women, genderqueer, or non-binary students in Grades 9-12 to recognize their computing-related achievements, interests, and aspirations. Applications for Aspirations in Computing Educator awards are open until December 1.