Category Archives: Accomplishments

LigerBots Teach from Experience: Making Distance Learning Work

Accomplishments, Great ideas, Resources

Newton’s high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, have done an amazing job in creating and implementing their free, online mentoring programs for elementary students during pandemic quarantines:  the Awesome Mentorship Program during the school year and Camp AMP during the summer. Now students on the team are sharing the expertise they have gained in a white paper, Distance Education Using Zoom, focusing on:

  • Adapting to a virtual learning environment
  • Providing education and entertainment for students
  • Building an engaged online community

The white paper will show you how, according to the Boston Globe, this team has “cracked the code for making virtual learning fun.” Congratulations and thanks, LigerBots!

HS Students Create MadLabz iOS App for STEM Engagement

Accomplishments, Resources

Local high-school students Jennifer Wang, Anya Lefkowitz, Sarah Knotts, and Sherry Xu have created MadLabz, a free, iOS-based app designed to engage students in at-home STEM exploration. It’s based on the #SCFGatHome collection of resources and activities compiled by Science Club for Girls, where Jennifer and Sarah have been Junior Mentors. The team originally created this app for the 2020 Technovation Challenge and decided to publish it to help students and families during the COVID shutdown. Here’s the video they created to present MadLabz in the Technovation Challenge.

Five Newton Students in Mass. Science & Engineering Fair

Accomplishments

Five Newton-area students participated in this year’s Massachusetts Science & Engineering Fair, and two of them won awards. The in-person Fair itself had to be canceled, but all the work before it was celebrated through media. Here are Newton’s participants and their research topics, which are described more fully in the MSEF Program Book:

  • 2nd Place — Rohit Paradkar (Newton South HS): Bioinformatical Analyses of the Wuhan Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
  • Finalist — Elizabeth Lesher (Newton Country Day): What Factors Increase the Risk of Contracting the Common Cold?
  • Charlotte Aslett (Newton Country Day): Testing the Effects of Sucrose on a Drosophila Model of Alzheimer’s
  • Emily Addona (Newton Country Day): Automated Integrated Security System
  • Nicholas Hu (Newton South HS): Defect Lifetimes in Active Nematic Systems

LigerBots Win Coveted Chairman’s Award!

Accomplishments

Even during #StayAtHome, the LigerBots‘ work and achievements continue. In a New England FIRST live stream held last week, it was announced that Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team won the FIRST Robotics Competition Chairman’s Award for the Greater Boston District Competition. The Chairman’s Award is FIRST’s highest award and celebrates the team that best exemplifies the ideals of FIRST. The video presentation of the LigerBots’ award cited the team’s extensive outreach programs, including Women in STEM Day, hosting two FIRST LEGO League competitions for Eastern Massachusetts, and project-based learning initiatives. Winning the Chairman’s award gives the team automatic qualification for the New England District Championship, which unfortunately had to be canceled this year. Nevertheless, the LigerBots’ achievements remain renowned.

STEM Offerings Moving Rapidly to Online, In-Home Learning

Accomplishments, Resources, Virtual/Online

Providers of STEM education and enrichment have moved rapidly to create online versions of their in-person programs for use during the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • The Innovation Institute has moved all of its spring-term courses online. Classes are starting just now, and some spaces are still available. An initial review from a parent of Grades K and 2 said her kids’ first classes were “a smashing success.” Additional courses will be added soon for Grades 8-12.
  • Mad Science offers its Loop Lab mail-order science curriculum (with a free lab coat if you use code LABCOAT19). It’s also offering daily 60-minute live online classroom sessions, available for single sessions or by the week.
  • Code Ninjas has created (and will be updating) a list of at-home STEM activity resources and is offering an at-home Hack-a-thon, tutorial videos, and daily LIVE YouTube videos. Details here.
  • Empow Studios is offering live, virtual online classes in coding, robotics, film and animation, Minecraft, and engineering.
  • The John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club has moved its Curiosity Club, Keystone Club, and Torch club meetings online and will host coding and other STEM activities for elementary and middle school kids via MyFuture.net.
  • Within the next week, the Russian School of Math will have temporarily moved all of its in-person classes online, simulating in-person classes as much as possible and drawing on its seven years of experience in online learning.
  • CSRecitations has moved all of its in-person classes online, including a new summer online course in Java for Grades 8+. Class sizes are limited to five students.

LigerBots Host FIRST LEGO League Eastern Massachusetts Championship

Accomplishments, Events

Yesterday the Newton LigerBots high-school robotics team hosted the Eastern Massachusetts FIRST Lego League (FLL) Championship featuring 48 FLL teams in Grades 4-8 that qualified for the event from across eastern Massachusetts, including seven teams from Newton: Roaming Rovers, Botanistas, ROBO SCAPERS, Day Dragons, LazerRobotics, City Snakes, and Supernovas. Teams competed in robot matches and research presentations based on this year’s FLL theme, City Shaper (see video and game guide). These Newton teams won awards:

  • ROBO SCAPERS: 1st place for Presentation Award
  • Supernovas:  1st place for Strategy & Innovation Award
  • City Snakes:  Judge’s Award
  • Botanistas:  2nd place for Lightning Round
  • Lazer Robotics: 2nd place for Mechanical Design Award

LigerBots mentor/coach Greer Swiston won the Outstanding Volunteer Award. The event attracted large crowds, including several public officials and candidates, as well as 120 Girl Scouts attending to earn their STEAM badges. In an accompanying STEAM Expo, the LigerBots and others demonstrated emerging technologies and interesting projects. See more photos here.

LigerBots Host FLL Qualifying Tournament, and 2 Newton FLL Teams Proceed to State Championship

Accomplishments, Events

Yesterday, Newton’s award-winning high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, hosted a FIRST Lego League (FLL) qualifying tournament at Newton North High School for 34 FLL teams of students in Grades 4-8 from all over eastern Massachusetts, including eight teams based in Newton. From 9AM to 2PM, teams competed in robot matches and research presentations based on this year’s FLL theme, City Shaper (see video), after which there was a dance party and an award ceremony. Judges scored the teams on their design, research project, and robot performance. Eleven teams — including Newton’s Roaming Rovers, City Snakes, and Day Dragons — were awarded “golden tickets” to advance to the state championship. The LigerBots also hosted a Maker Fair, where students of all ages could see and interact with local STEAM experts and have hands-on experience applying science and engineering skills and concepts.

On December 14, the LigerBots will again host the Eastern Massachusetts FLL Championship tournament at Newton North HS, with more teams and more fun!  That event will include a Maker Fair with local companies, more hands-on activities, and a Girl Scouts STEAM workshop. It’s all free and open to the public.

2 Newton Teams Succeed at Destination Imagination Global Finals

Accomplishments

Two Destination Imagination teams represented Newton at the Global Finals in Kansas City, MO two weeks ago, and both teams did very well among teams from 15 nations around the world. At the elementary level, the Newton Noodle Nibblers placed 6th out of 60, and at the high-school level, team tiny.cc/2rb22y (that’s the team’s clever name, and not a link to its website!) placed 12th out of 60. Both teams competed in the Medical Mystery (Scientific) challenge, in which they:

  • Researched the human body and medical conditions that affect the human body,
  • Created and presented a story about a medical mystery that affects a human character,
  • Designed and built a representation that shows the medical mystery and at least one symptom, and
  • Presented an action or scene that is shown from two or more perspectives at the same time.

Newton South HS Science Dept. Open House, May 30

Accomplishments, Events

The Newton South High School Science Department will hold its annual Open House on May 30, 3PM-6:30PM.

  • Displays of student work in Family Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Engineering
  • Departmental awards honoring student achievements
  • DaVinci STEAM program final engineering projects (Kinetic sculpture meets Biology & Math) and understanding DNA through art and engineering
  • Fun With Chemistry demonstrations for kids
  • Guest speakers from local universities on climate change
  • Student speakers presenting their original work
  • Technology and Engineering displays
  • Presentations by the NSHS Science Team and the LigerBots robotics team