All posts by newtonstem

Grades 7-8: Register by Mar. 1 for Virtual MIT Spark, Mar. 12-13

Events, Virtual/Online

This year MIT’s Spark enrichment program for Grades 7-8 will be run virtually March 12 (9AM-6PM EST!) and March 13 (10AM-6PM EDT!). MIT students run Spark and teach its courses. The cost is $40 per student regardless of the number of courses taken, and there is generous, need-based financial aid available. Register by March 1 with your course choices to be included in the lottery for course placements. To maximize the number of time blocks in which you have classes, for each time block you should rank at least 3 classes and star at least 6 classes. After the lottery, there will be first-come/first-served registration for remaining spots. For more information, email spark@mit.edu. Among the 71 classes available are these STEM-related ones:

  • Intro to Javascript (Beginners)
  • Inside Java
  • Let’s make a discord bot!
  • How to make an impact in your community using programming and design
  • PicoPlay Workshop: Program a Mobile Device!
  • Making Your Own Water Filters
  • Geometry and Beauty of Soap Bubbles
  • Learn Rocket Science With MIT Rocket Team!
  • How to be an Astronaut
  • How to Build a Solar Car
  • How to build a spacecraft
  • Help Solve Climate Change!
  • Algorithmic Justice through Media Literacy Education
  • Digital humanities: what’s that all about?
  • pRoPoSiTiOnAL LoGiC
  • Information and the Redundancy of English
  • A History of Number Systems
  • Turning up the Heat: A Crash Course in Heat Transfer
  • CRISPR: The Molecular Scissors
  • Microbiome 101: What’s in your poop?
  • Fun with Polymers!
  • Wet lab: extracting strawberry DNA
  • Coastal Ecology
  • Ice Cream and Other Cold Things: Fun with Liquid Nitrogen
  • How do we fight against COVID?
  • FRUIT SNACKS!!!! with a side of some Biology
  • Optics for Aerospace
  • How to find Exoplanets
  • The Ballad of You and Your Brain
  • What is Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
  • Ionizing Radiation: From Hot Rocks to Fusion Plasmas
  • Nucleic Acids: The Symphony of Life
  • Fun with Immunology
  • Is life about to get CRISPER?: learn the basics of genome editing!
  • A not-so-brief History of Particle Accelerators
  • sticky situations
  • Humans working on the Moon: training and guidelines
  • Human Identification through DNA Typing

N. E. Sci-Tech Rocketry Club Starts Mar. 20; First Launch May 28

Events, Opportunities

The Rocketry Club of the New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center (16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick) will meet on Sundays, 2PM-4PM starting on March 20, as well as some Fridays, 6:30PM-8:30PM. It’s open to adults and children ages 13+ (parents of registered children may participate for free). Meetings are for club administration, guest speakers and the designing and building of rockets in preparation for five rocket launch events (320 School Street in Acton) between May and September (first event: May 28, 10AM-4PM).

Grades 7-12: Sign Up by Feb. 15 for MIT’s Spring (Virtual) HSSP, Saturdays, Feb. 26-Apr. 2

Opportunities, Virtual/Online

MIT’s Spring HSSP is a five-week academic program for Grades 7-12, presented (online this year) by MIT on Saturdays, February 26 to April 2 (except March 12), 1PM-4PM.  All online registrations completed by February 15 will be considered equally in the course-assignment lottery, and registrations after that will be taken first-come/first-served. The cost is $40 per student (regardless of the number of courses taken) and generous, need-based financial aid is available. Email spring-hssp@mit.edu for more information.  The Spring HSSP course catalog covers many academic and non-academic topics, including these STEM offerings:

  • Optimization of Human Performance for Lunar Work Environments
  • Introduction to Epidemiology
  • Physics of Light: Theory and Experiments
  • A Practical Guide to Quantum Computing
  • Soils: Science, Practice, and Sustainability
  • Lab Techniques in Chemistry
  • Introduction to Human Body Systems
  • Cultivate a Microbial Garden
  • Sensory Neuroscience
  • STEM Lecture Series
  • AI and Science: An Introduction to AI and its Role in Modern Research
  • Using Computer Science to Model our World
  • Introduction to the Theory of Computation
  • Quantum Field Theory: A Mathematical Perspective
  • Math in Logic Puzzles
  • Playing Games with Infinity
  • Algebra. All of it. From the beginning

Apply by Feb. 18: MIT’s CodeIt — Online Introduction to Coding, for Girls & Non-Binary Students in Grades 6-8, Mar. 9 – Apr. 27

After School, Virtual/Online

MIT’s CodeIt program introduces girls and non-binary students in Grades 6-8 to Computer Science. It’s a free program, led by MIT undergraduates, using the Scratch programming language, and aimed at middle-school students with little or no prior experience in coding. It will be hosted virtually over Zoom over six weeks (March 9-April 27), in two parallel classes: Sundays 3PM-4:30PM or Wednesdays 7PM-8PM. There will be no classes on March 20 or 23. Apply here by February 18. For more information, email codeit-exec@mit.edu.

DiscoverE: Online Chats with Change Makers — James Webb Space Telescope, Feb. 24

Events, Virtual/Online

For  Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, DiscoverE will host an online Chat with Change Makers on February 24 at 12 noon with two engineers who work on the James Webb Space Telescope: Margaret Dominguez (optical engineer at NASA) and Stephanie Hernandez (systems engineer at Northrop Grumman). Students can hear their stories and ask questions. Register here to get the links for viewing on Zoom or YouTube. Future editions of Chats with Change Makers will be at 3:30PM on March 31 and April 28.