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.”
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, 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.
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.
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.
The LigerBots, Newton’s competitive high school robotics team, will host the Massachusetts East State Championship FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament at Newton North High School on December 16, along with a STEAM activity expo for children and a robot zoo. The tournament and the expo are free and open to the public. No registration is required for visitors. The tournament runs 9AM-4PM, and the STEAM expo hours are 10AM-3PM.
The STEAM expo provides FLL students, their parents, coaches, and the community with educational, hands-on activities while the competition is going on. LigerBots expect to offer many STEAM activities and demonstrations for kids aged 5 – 14, plus displays of robots made by high school students, and activities provided by local companies and organizations. Please take a look at this Flickr album of a previous event to see what happens at tournament and STEAM expo. For more information, email info@ligerbots.org.
MassBay Community College will hold its biannual Student STEM Expo on Monday, December 11, 1PM-2PM in the cafeteria of its Wellesley Hills campus, as well as virtually from December 11–15. Students will showcase their work in engineering, math, computer science, life sciences, and biotechnology programs for the MassBay community, local STEM professionals, and the general public.
Future City is a four-month civil-engineering program for middle-school students, culminating in an annual design competition in January. This year, it will be January 20, and the theme is Sustainable and Safe Power. The program seeks professional engineers (and others with relevant technical backgrounds) to volunteer as judges to evaluate the student teams’ work. Volunteers can be working professionals, retirees, or college/graduate students with experience in STEM, urban planning, architecture, or related fields. Learn more at EngineerYourFuture.org or email Reed Brockman at newengland@futurecity.org.
On November 18, Newton’s high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, hosted a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Newton Qualifier tournament — in which teams of elementary and middle schoolers passionate about robotics compete using LEGO robots that they have designed and built. The LigerBots have hosted FLL tournaments since 2008. This event had LEGOs and robots in every corner of the building, booming voices of the MC announcing matches, 14 FLL teams competing, and 70 LigerBot student volunteers working hard to run this show. FLL teams displayed their projects, on this year’s FIRST theme — The Arts — in the Newton North cafeteria.
FLL teams preparing their robots for competition — L: New England Code Crackers, R: Cookie Coders
The LigerBots set up a booth on Newton North’s Main Street corridor to showcase their 2022 FIRST Robotics Competition robot and two hands-on STEAM activities: making custom buttons and origami pieces. The FLL team members enjoyed interacting with the robot — a machine that can shoot giant tennis balls for them to catch — and found the STEAM demonstrations entertaining.
Of the 14 FLL teams that attended, four are from Newton: New England Code Crackers, Cookie Coders, The First Layer, and Voltage.
Newton FLL teams in the qualifying tournament, clockwise from top-left: New England Code Crackers, Cookie, Coders, The First Layer, and Voltage.
The tournament concluded with an awards ceremony and a dance party. All four teams from Newton received awards: Cookie Coders (Innovation Project first place), Voltage (Innovation Project second place), New England Code Crackers (Core Values first place) and The First Layer (Judges Award).
Among the six teams that qualified to continue to the state finals next month are two teams from Newton — Cookie Coders and New England Code Crackers — and four other teams: Goofy Gyros, Mechanical Madness, Acton Avengers, and The Mind Coders. These teams will compete at the upcoming Massachusetts FLL Championship, which will be divided between competitions at WPI and at Newton North High School.
The MA FLL Championship tournament at Newton North High School, also run by the LigerBots, will be on December 16, 9AM-4PM — free and open the public. As many as 48 FLL teams will compete head-to-head, and the LigerBots will once again host a STEAM Expo, run alongside the competition. At the STEAM Expo, 10AM-3PM, FLL team members and all attendees will have the opportunity to engage in a large variety of hands-on STEAM activities, explore a number of local organizations’ booths, and interact with bigger robots from FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge.
