All posts by newtonstem

Outbreak! Online Health Summer Learning Experience in Public Health, Grades 10-12

Summer, Virtual/Online

The Public Health Museum in Tewksbury is again offering its free summer public health learning experience, Outbreak!, online for students entering Grades 10-12 in the fall. It’s designed for students interested in careers in public health, medicine, epidemiology, bioethics, nursing, virology, mental health, or related fields. The program consists of interactive workshops, discussions with public-health experts, and Q&A panels with college students. It will run online Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9AM-1PM, July 18-29 with some additional programming outside of those hours. Apply here. For more information, email outbreak@publichealthmuseum.org.

McAuliffe Center: Stargazing and Planetarium Show, June 3

Events

The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host a free evening of stargazing and observation on June 3, 8:15PM-9:30PM (weather permitting), in FSU’s O’Connor parking lot by Maynard Road in Framingham.

Earlier in the evening, 7:30PM-8:15PM, the Center will present a planetarium show, Undiscovered Worlds, about the search for habitable exo-planets. The show is for ages 12+, and you can purchase tickets ($5) here. Masks are required indoors. For more information, email cmc@framingham.edu.

MassBay Virtual STEM Expo, May 9-13

Accomplishments, Events, Virtual/Online

MassBay Community College in Wellesley will host its twice-yearly Student STEM Expo showcasing students’ work, again online this year. You attend at any time to view video presentations and comment on projects in the online forums.  There are also opportunities to talk in real-time with students and faculty. The expo also highlights MassBay’s STEM Starter Academy, which aims to engage and support more students in STEM fields.

The LigerBots Wind Up a Very Successful Year and Seek Sponsors

Accomplishments, Opportunities

Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, is finishing a year of success both in competitions and in community service.  In FIRST Robotics Competition events:

  • In the North Shore Competition in Reading, the LigerBots captained the second-seeded alliance and made it all the way to the semi-finals. The team also received FIRST’s coveted Gracious Professionalism Award.
  • At the Greater Boston Competition in Revere, as part of the fourth-seeded alliance, the LigerBots again made it to the semi-finals, qualifying for the New England District Championship (DCMP). The team also won the Engineering Inspiration Award at this event.
  • At DCMP, the LigerBots captained the eighth-seeded alliance and made it to the quarter finals, finishing 28th out of 160 teams in all of New England.

And in service to the Newton community:

  • The LigerBots continue to provide assistance and mentorship to FIRST LEGO League teams for elementary- and middle-school students in Newton.
  • Since the Covid pandemic began, the LigerBots have continued to offer the aptly named Awesome Mentorship Project to provide high-school mentors for elementary students both in the summer and during the school year.
  • On April 24, the LigerBots participated in the Earth Day celebration at Newton City Hall, showing off Prometheus, the LigerBots’ newly built competition robot – to educate, entertain, and inspire the community.  LigerBots also showed kids how to make bracelets with their initials in binary code.
  • On May 1, the LigerBots participated in the Newton Bike Rodeo, a bicycle safety event hosted by Bike Newton for children in Grades K-6 to promote safe bike riding habits and cycling to school. The team created an obstacle course that participants used to practice their bike safety skills.

The LigerBots rely in part on donations and financial sponsorships to support its competitions, educational offerings, and community outreach. You can make make a donation here, and to learn about becoming a sponsor (corporate or otherwise), email sponsor-relations@ligerbots.org. The LigerBots are “massively grateful” to all of their sponsors!

NSHS Sophomore Excels in Junior Math Olympiad

Accomplishments

Representing Newton’s Russian School of Math, NSHS sophomore Elena Baskakova is one of the 67 nationwide winners of the United States Junior Math Olympiad (USAJMO), the top invitational competition hosted by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for students scoring high in the MAA’s American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME). With this achievement, Elena has qualified for the MAA’s 2022 Math Olympiad Program at Carnegie Mellon University this summer. Elena is also one of five students in the Northeast to receive a Two Sigma AMC 10B Certificate of Excellence in the AMC Young Women in Mathematics Award & Certificate Program.

Newton MS Students Score Well in N. E. Math League

Accomplishments

In this year’s New England Math League competitions, Newton middle-school students from several schools did well:

  • In 6th Grade, Solomon Schechter Day School ranked 6th among 40 schools, and Zev K from there ranked among the top students in the league, along with these students from the Newton Chinese Language School: Grace Z (ranked 1st), Jason H, Edward L, Julia L, Sun M, Ryan L, and Freddie T.
  • In 7th Grade, Kyle C, Ella L, and Claire C from the Newton Chinese Language School ranked among the top students in the league.
  • In 8th Grade, Oak Hill Middle School tied for 1st place among 41 schools, and the following ranked among the top students in the league: Noah K and Jared M (tied for 1st) along with Vedant K and Roaa B from Oak Hill MS; and Clayton S, William X, and Ray C from the Newton Chinese Language School.

In related news, the Oak Hill MS MathCounts team finished 5th overall and tied for 5th in the Team Round in the Acton-Boxborough Math Competition last month, tackling these problems.