The Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts invite all girls in Grades 4-12 to their Virtual STEM Conference, March 20-21, 10AM-6PM. Choose your schedule among keynote addresses and workshops (Grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12). The cost is $30 for members and $40 for non-members, and financial aid is available. Register by March 14 as GSEMA Girl Scout Junior, GSEMA Girl Scout Cadette/Senior/Ambassador, or Nonmember or members of other Girl Scout Council.
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McAuliffe Center Offers Paid Summer Internships to College Students
Undergraduate and graduate students may apply by April 15 for one of four paid summer internships for undergraduate or graduate students offered by the Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University in the areas of:
- Digital Illustration and Brand Identity
- Multimedia Production
- Science Writing
- Stem Learning Experience Development
Cambridge Science Festival: Entry Proposals Due Tomorrow, Mar. 1
The Cambridge Science Festival will be held virtually this year: 30 Days of Science throughout April. If you have ideas for entries you’d like to offer — hands-on activities, lab tours, videos, etc. — submit them by March 1. CSF is looking for fun, hands-on offerings from a wide range of people, highlighting science from the past year. For more information, email jbill@mit.edu.
Grades 7-8: Register NOW for Virtual MIT Spark, Mar. 13, 20 & 27
This year MIT’s Spark enrichment program for Grades 7-8 will be run virtually over three Saturdays, March 13, 20 & 27 . MIT students run Spark and teach its courses, which may be one-day stand-alone classes or sequences that span multiple Saturdays. Classes will be held each Saturday during 11AM-1PM and 2PM-5PM. 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 4 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 until March 10. For more information, email spark@mit.edu. Among the 84 classes available are these STEM-related ones:
- Introduction to MIT App Inventor
- Introduction to Proof Logic
- Visual Accessibility with MIT App Inventor
- Spreadsheets are Cool
- How To Quickly Prototype an AI Chip
- Introduction to Computer Programming
- Create Your Own Conversational AI Agents
- Siri, self-driving cars, and COVID: what can (and can’t) AI do for you?
- Random Forests: Introduction to Machine Learning
- Satellite Engineering
- What in the world is plasma?
- Metals & Metallurgists & Manufacturing
- How To Make Mediocre Furniture
- Yeeting Rockets
- Intro to Electronics
- Tessellations of 2D planes & 3D space
- Infinities
- Cellular Automata
- Information and the Redundancy of English
- Fractals!
- Fibonacci Numbers! Featuring Recursion
- Mod Mathematics and Mod Art
- Introduction to Number Theory
- The Science of COVID-19
- Debates in Bioethics
- Getting to the Bottom of Things
- Antiferromagnetism!!
- How Do We Make Energy?
- How to Build a Virus
- Fusion Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Racism
- what is DNA, structure and its function
- mRNA vaccine turning people into mutants? Science behind COVID and vaccine
- Light and Radiation: The Invisible World
- The Origin of Everything: Introduction to Cosmology
- Glow Big or Glow home
- Active Galaxies & Supermassive Black Holes
- Introductory cardiology: how the heart beats and breaks
- Stellar graveyard: black holes, neutron stars and more!
- Physics of the Extreme!
- Introduction to Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- Let’s Talk about the Weather!
- Seedy Dealings: The Rise of Plants
- The Microbiome: How much of your body is you?
- The Science of Happiness
- Science and Economics of Climate Change: Understanding Environmental Successes and Failures
- Women’s Health
- Special Relativity
- Microbiome 101: What’s in your poop?
- Nuclear Fusion: Infinite, Clean Energy?
Harvard Museums Online: After-School Animal Encounters–Weird Eaters, Mar. 3
Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will present a free, live, online, family-friendly event, After-School Animal Encounters: Weird Eaters, on March 3, 3PM-3:45PM. Museum staff will introduce live animals and explain creatures’ unusual diets and eating habits. Register here to get a link to the event and to make a voluntary contribution if you wish to support HMSC.
WBUR CitySpace Online: Leveling the Playing Field in STEM, Mar. 23
WBUR’s CitySpace will present a free, virtual panel discussion, Leveling the Playing Field in STEM, on March 23 at 6PM. On Point host Meghna Chakrabarti will lead a conversation about ways to repair disparities in education, youth enrichment programming, recruitment, and promotion that cause Black and Latinx Americans to be underrepresented in STEM. Register here. Sponsored by Olin College of Engineering. Panelists include:
- Tarika Barrett – CEO, Girls Who Code
- Nigel Jacob – co-chair, Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
- Adrian Mims – founder and national director, The Calculus Project
- Karl Reid – senior vice provost and chief inclusion officer, Northeastern University
FSU McAuliffe Center Online: Global Warming Demystified, Apr. 22
The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will present a free webinar, Global Warming Demystified, on April 22 at 5:30PM as the keynote of Science on State Street — Planet Earth Edition. It’s aimed at high-school students and older, but all ages are welcome. Dr. Jeffrey Bennett will speak about the science behind global warming and explain solutions that people of all political views can agree upon. His talk is based on his book, Global Warming Primer. Register here.
Summer STEM Institute for HS Students: Apply by Apr. 16
The Summer STEM Institute is a rigorous, selective, pre-collegiate virtual summer program for high-school students aiming to be “top international scientists and leaders.” It consists of a Data Sciences bootcamp, a variety of master classes, and weekend challenges for up to 500 students, plus an optional, six-week mentored research project for up to 100 of those students. Class teachers and project mentors are accomplished undergraduates and other young adults worldwide. The program will run virtually June 20 through August 1. The cost is $2,450 for the bootcamp, master class and weekend challenges, plus $6,450 for the optional research project. Financial aid is available. Applications — including personal information, school information, transcripts and test scores, activities and awards, and a personal statement — are due April 16. For more information, see the FAQs or email info@summersteminstitute.org.
Science Club for Girls: Spring Clubs Have Started
Last week, Science Club for Girls launched its spring semester of Science Clubs with over 70 mentors guiding more than 250 girls through an 8-week curriculum of exploring Planet Earth, including geology, energy, biomes, and recycling. Three-quarters of these girls are from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM fields by race, family income, or first-generation college bound. Here’s a short video of students from the fall semester talking about their favorite projects and their appreciation for their mentors.
Newton Schools Foundation Makes STEM Grants
The Newton Schools Foundation announced 20 grants this year, including these STEM-related ones:
- The Calculus Project: A comprehensive program to increase the number of African American, Hispanic, and low-income students who enroll in and successfully complete calculus in high school.
- STEM for Students with Visual Impairment: Materials to ensure the NPS STEM curriculum can be adapted for the students during the 2020-2021 school year.