MassBay Community College in Wellesley will offer its Summer Bridge STEM program, July 6-17 from 9AM to 3:30PM. Students will choose either a) one of two for-credit courses (3D CAD Technology or Digital Imaging) or b) a series of four 2.5-day, noncredit workshops (Artbotics, Coding with Scratch, Raspberry Pi, Mobile Apps with App Inventor). Register online. The $100 fee is due at registration. For more information, call 781-239-2586 or email ssreedhar@massbay.edu.
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Ligerbots Excel in their 1st FIRST Competition of the Season!
This weekend at UMass Dartmouth, the Newton LigerBots (Team #2877) turned in an excellent performance in their first district meet of the 2015 FIRST Robotics Competition season.
- The team made it all the way to semifinals in this year’s “Recycle Rush” game, with their alliance finishing third in the tournament.
- They also won the coveted District Chairman’s Award, which honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. This award celebrates the LigerBots’ efforts to spread interest in STEM in their community. (Thank you, LigerBots!) It also automatically qualifies the LigerBots to compete in the District Championship in April, for the chance to advance to the FIRST World Championships later this spring.
- Three members of the team won nominations to advance in the district-wide competitions for individual awards:
- Head coach Charles Hurwitz will now advance to the district championship level for the Woodie Flowers Award — given to the mentor who best leads, inspires, teaches, and empowers their team using excellent communication skills.
- Max Tepermeister and Ilias Vamvakas will now advance to the district championship level for the Dean’s List Award — given to outstanding student leaders for their exemplary passion for and effectiveness at attaining FIRST ideals.
Currently, the LigerBots are ranked 44th of 175 teams in New England, with one qualifying tournament at Northeastern University to be played on March 27-28 and then the District Championship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on April 9-11. As always, these competitions are a blast for spectators, too. Come down to Northeastern or WPI to cheer on the award-winning LigerBots!
Newton to Send 3 Middle-School Girls to ‘Envision the Future’ — July 20-24
Envision the Future is a one-week residential summer STEM program for girls ages 11-13. It’s designed to foster interest in STEM fields — and to serve as a model of effective practices for doing so, through replication of its activities in supporting communities the following year. The program includes challenging STEM activities, career exploration with STEM professionals, meeting women role models, and connecting with other girls with similar interests.
Envision the Future will take place with a total of 48 participants at Bridgewater State University, July 20-24, under the auspices of the Southeastern Massachusetts STEM Network. Participation is by invitation. Newton has been invited to create a network of local STEM-interested organizations to:
- Send three middle-school girls as participants in the program and then
- Replicate one or more of the program’s STEM-promoting practices in Newton next year.
Continue reading Newton to Send 3 Middle-School Girls to ‘Envision the Future’ — July 20-24
Community Boating’s Spring ‘RoboSail’ Program: Register Now
This spring, Community Boating will repeat last fall’s RoboSail program — combining sailing with robotics — for up to 20 Boston-area high-school students who will learn about robotics, electronics, and mechanisms by programming a model sailboat to sail a course. The program is taught by Diane Brancazio, a Belmont middle- and high-school engineering teacher who also teaches sailing at Community Boating. Participants should have a solid understanding of sailing principles, but programming experience is not required. You can learn more about nida core here. Attendance at all six sessions (1-4PM on most Sundays, April 12-May 31) is required. All on-board equipment is provided by a generous donor, but participants should bring a laptop if possible. The program fee is $1 to $50, depending on household income. Register by April 5 by mailing in this form with a check. To become a volunteer mentor for this program or for information about the course content, email diane@robosail.org. For registration questions, email ginger@community-boating.org.
Tech Savvy in Boston: One-Week Summer STEM for Girls Entering Grades 7-8
Tech Savvy is a one-week summer STEM program for girls entering Grades 7-8 next fall. It’s run July 20-24, 9AM-4PM, by the Boston Girls STEM Collaborative. Each day starts and ends at BU’s Photonics Center and includes activities at a different university: Northeastern, Wentworth, BU, UMass Boston, or Harvard. The cost ($200, or $40 for those with demonstrated financial need) covers all activities, transportation, and lunch. Online registration is open. Those who are accepted will be asked to submit signed waivers and payment. For more information, email techsavvy@bostongirlsstem.org.
Innovation Institute: Openings in Spring Engineering Classes
The Innovation Institute in Newtonville has space available in two of its after-school classes this spring:
- Electrical Engineering Immersion Grades 7-8 (4:15-6:15PM on Thursdays, April 2-June 25): An unusually small class in Robotics, led by an experienced electrical engineer, telecom hardware entrepreneur, and math Olympiad coach.
- Mechanical Engineering Grades 5-6 (4:15-6:15PM on Thursdays, March 26-June 25): “Water, Fire and Strong Projectiles!” — fluid dynamics and buoyancy, heat transfer and thermodynamics, projectile motion and Newtonian physics.
…and has added two more classes:
- Mechanical Engineering Grades 5-6 (1-3PM on Saturdays, March 28-June 27): Same as above.
- Investigate, Discover and Design II Grades 1-2 (Mondays, 3:30-5PM, March 23-June 22): Experiential learning in science and engineering.
Register online or call 617-340-9907.
John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club Seeks FLL Coach
The John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club is expanding its STEM programming and would like to start a FIRST Lego League team. The club has secured a donation of needed equipment and now seeks one or more adult volunteers to coach a team that will be formed. Contact Les Whitham, Program Director, for more information or to express interest.
Free, Helpful, and Easy: Newton Library’s STEM Survey
Please take a few minutes to help the Newton Free Library by completing their short Technology Survey on STEM interest and awareness. You may respond for yourself and/or for your children. (Please take the survey before you read about all the Library’s STEAM programs, which might skew the results by increasing your awareness and interest!)
Marjot Foundation Offers High-School Students Grants for Environmental Research
The Marjot Foundation supports high-school students’ independent environmental research and is accepting applications for grants to individuals or teams of students in Grades 9-11 to conduct environmental research projects that they have designed. Each grant totals $5000 — $1000 to the student(s), $1000 to the mentor, $500 to the school departments, and $2500 to cover the cost of supplies. Applications (including a two-page research proposal, a letter of recommendation from the student’s mentor, and a budget proposal) are to be submitted — both online and in hardcopy (PDF) — by April 1. See How to Apply for application details, sample proposals, links to previous research grants, and the Foundation’s assistance to first-time grant-writers. For more information, contact Caitlin Feehery at cfeehery22@gmail.com.
Newton Library: Scratch Programming for Grades 3-6, Apr. 2
Registration opened on March 12 for the April 2 session of the Newton Free Library’s Scratch Club for Grades 3-6. From 6:30PM to 7:30PM, kids work with the Scratch programming language to create games, animations, and stories. Registration is for this session is now full, but you can enter the Waiting List online. Space always fills quickly for this program, which repeats monthly, so search the Library’s calendar for upcoming sessions.