All posts by newtonstem

Grades 8-12: Register for Northeastern Splash!, Mar. 30

Events

Each spring, NEPTUN (a Northeastern University student group) hosts Splash!, a free program for students in Grades 8-12 to take fun and informative mini-classes led by Northeastern undergraduate students. This year, Splash! will again be held in-person at Ryder Hall on the Northeastern campus, on March 30, 8:30AM-6:40PM. The $0 cost includes free lunch and a T-shirt. Registration is opens at midnight on March 4 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. You can also access online recordings of Digital Splash! courses from 2020. Among the 20 in-person Splash! courses this year are these STEM offerings:

  • Bye Bye Baby! V2
  • Electronics and Soldering Workshop
  • Python Programming for Pupils
  • The Entire Internet in an Hour!
  • Emoji: How They Work and Why They Break Everything
  • Eye-Q Boost: Let’s make an eyeball model!
  • How to preserve dead things
  • Science In A Jar: DIY Lava Lamps
  • It Gets Butter With Time

AI Academy offering spring & summer introductions to AI

After School, Summer

This spring and summer, AI Academy is offering a hands-on introduction to AI for Grades 6-12, in two levels: beginner cohorts for students with no past experience, and advanced cohorts for experienced students. Student-teacher ratios are kept to 5:1. Instructors are experienced student researchers (see bios).

Students will learn Python coding and AI fundamentals and build an AI project applying these skills to a real-world problem based on their interest in Art, Finance, Healthcare or Robotics. Example projects include applying AI to self-driving cars, stock market indicator prediction, and music recommendations.

The spring session runs from March 17 to May 26. For more information, contact AI Academy.

Wonderland: Free high-school hackathon in Newton, Feb. 23-25

Events, Opportunities

Wonderland is a free, 48-hour hackathon, February 23-25, “bringing students from all over the Boston area for a weekend of unhindered creation.” It’s organized by six high-school seniors (including ones from Newton North HS and Newton South HS) under the auspices of nonprofit Hack Club with support from WPS Institute in Newton Centre, which is providing the venue. (Last spring, this team of student organizers ran the Beantown Bash hackathon, also with Hack Club.)

Wonderland is open to high-school students 18 and under. (Older high-school students may email wonderland@hackclub.com to check eligibility.) While drawing mainly from the Greater Boston area, the event also has limited travel stipends available for others to participate from further away.

Wonderland is not a typical hackathon; it doesn’t involve computer hacking, and no coding is required. It’s for both beginners and experienced makers to get together and create. In the words of the organizers, it’s for “any student interested in making projects with their hands. From software, to hardware, and every art project in between, Wonderland is a space for high school students to pursue the unimaginable.”

The organizers describe Wonderland: “Centered around mystery chests, we’re challenging participants to build projects out of what they’re given. How will you combine a Python gif generator and receipt printer? What about a keyboard and RC car? There is no limit to what can be made in Wonderland!”

The event is free and runs from 4PM on Friday to 12PM on Sunday at WPS Institute (160 Herrick Road, Newton Centre). Food and sleeping accommodations are provided. See the parents’ guide.

Students should register here individually. Teams will be created on-site.

MIT ESP’s Spring HSSP (Mar. 2 – Apr. 6): Registration ends Feb. 20

Opportunities

MIT’s Spring HSSP — a multi-week, in-person academic program for Grades 7-12 — will take place at MIT on Saturdays, March 2 to April 6 (except March 16), 1PM-4PM. Online registrations are open now, and all applications completed by February 20 will be considered equally in the course-assignment lottery (registrations after that will be taken first-come/first-served as space is available). The cost is $50 per student (regardless of the number of courses taken) and generous, need-based financial aid is available. For more information, see FAQs or email spring-hssp@mit.edu.

This year’s course catalog includes these STEM courses:

  • A Primer in Quantum Computing
  • Introduction to Graphics Programming with Shaders
  • AI and Science: An Introduction to AI and its Applications in Modern Research
  • Computation theory: problems that even the impossible computer can’t solve
  • Computing in the Small
  • It’s Not Rocket Science (Wait, Yes It Is!)
  • How to CAD Almost Anything! – HS Edition
  • Numerical Methods: Solving Equations w/ Computers
  • Introduction to speedcubing and abstract algebra
  • Set theory and applications
  • Nuclear Reactors: Science and Operation
  • Experimental Physics Lab
  • Introduction to Computational Molecular Models
  • Astrobiology
  • The Earth is Alive: A brief overview of Earth as a dynamic system
  • Introduction to Microbiology
  • Pathology Naturewalk
  • The Economics of Immigration Policy

Tufts Engineering Design Challenge webinar, Grades K-12, Feb. 21

After School, Events, Virtual/Online

Tufts University’s Center for Engineering Education and Outreach will host a live webinar — Engineering Design Challenge — for students in Grades K-12 on February 21 at 4PM. Register here.

“Kids will be presented with an engineering design challenge to do at home with whatever materials they have around the house (cardboard, string, tape, paperclips, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, cups, scissors, paper towel rolls, random LEGO bricks, etc). While attendees build, a panel of Tufts undergraduate students and a professional engineer will talk about engineering and their paths to studying engineering.”

Coder Experience School launches with in-person classes, for Grade 6 through Adult, starting Feb. 26

After School

Ted Zhu has recently launched Coder Experience School, an “in-person coding school with the goal of promoting Engineering and Software principles to a broader audience.” It offers classes for Grade 6 through Adult in areas such as  web application development, interactive 2D games, and practical electronics. All classes are taught in-person at the Newton Marriott (2345 Commonwealth Avenue), in the Lexington Room on Floor 3.

Spring classes start February 26 and meet on Wednesdays after 4PM. To register, send an email to the address on that page.

Ted Zhu describes himself as “a software engineer with a mission to provide true conceptual-based learning to students wanting to learn how to code and how to become an Engineer.” He believes that “steps cannot be skipped in learning, and that deep conceptual understanding of core fundamentals is the key to success in student learning outcomes.”

Penguin Coding School in Newton Centre

After School, Summer

Penguin Coding School, with locations in Acton, Lexington, and Brooklyn, opened last spring at in Newton Centre, a 1223 Centre Street, next to Tatte. It offers coding and robotics programs for ages 5-18 with afterschool and weekend classes in Lego Robotics, Minecraft, Python, Scratch and Roblox. Applications are open until February 26 for the Winter Semester (through April 7).

Summer full-day sessions are available by the week – “a fun filled week of coding, robotics, 3D printing and wacky science experiments” –  from June 24 through August 30. (Use code lovetocode24 for a $100 discount.)

Newton teens may apply to be teaching assistants or instructors, or work on capstone projects with a Penguin Coding mentor.

Free trial classes are available February 19-23, or request a free trial on a different date.

Science on State Street, Apr. 27, seeks exhibitors

Events

Science on State Street is Framingham State University’s annual science festival, focusing on themes relating to planet Earth, and the ways that STEM fields support environmental justice, renewable energy, and environmental sustainability. This year it will take place on April 27, noon-3PM at the Christa Mcauliffe Center and O’Connor parking lot at Framingham State University.

The organizers seek to recruit exhibitors in STEM, arts, and cultural sectors to offer “hands-on activities and thought-provoking discussions for all ages, relating directly or indirectly to the festival’s environmental theme.” Potential exhibitors should apply here by March 1. Accepted exhibitors will be provided one table and two chairs, and the event will take place outdoors.

Superintendent to recommend additional funding for STEM

Opportunities, Resources

Last week, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced an updated financial strategy to apply 70% of the City’s one-time overlay surplus funds (plus associated interest) as a supplement to the budget for the Newton Public Schools. Today, Newton’s Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Anna Nolin, announced that she will be recommending to the School Committee that, among several “most critical needs of the district” the Superintendent listed, this additional funding should be used in part to:

  • Reduce high school class sizes in math and science

  • Restore some high school electives, most critically in science and engineering (based on course request data from both high schools)

  • Create additional planning time and dedicated math and literacy intervention blocks in the elementary schools where they are needed most

  • Invest in math and STEM curricula which have not been reviewed or upgraded in well over a decade

The School Committee will here the Superintendent’s recommendations at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, December 18.