Local museums are recognizing National Chemistry Week with “Fabulous Fibers: The Chemistry of Fabrics” hands-on activities at these times and locations. Museum admission is required:

• Saturday, October 15: Boston Children’s Museum offers two sessions: 9AM-Noon and 1:30PM-4:30PM.
• Sunday, October 16: Discovery Museum in Acton offers one session: Noon-3PM
• Thursday, October 20: Museum of Science, Boston offers one session: 1PM-4PM.

To kick off Massachusetts STEM Week, the Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University is inviting the public to a free Open House on October 14, 6PM-8PM with exhibitors, stargazing, hands-on activities, and planetarium shows at 6PM, 6:45PM, and 7:30PM. Celebrate the start of the project that will transform the McAuliffe Center into a modern hub for integrated STEM learning, networking, and community action. (Directions)

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will celebrate International Archeology Day on October 15, 11AM-3PM at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology (11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge). Learn about archeology from graduate students:

• 11AM-1PM: Jack Bishop will examine ancient stone tools for a glimpse into the early domestication of animals and the rise of agriculture in the Middle East.
• 1PM-3PM: Mack FitzPatrick will explain how the ancient Inka of Peru (c. 1400–1532 CE) wrote with string and will show a working replica of a khipu knotted string record-keeping system.

This event is included with regular admission to the museum.

The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University, with Club for the Future and Prime Video, is hosting a free screening of Good Night Oppy on October 27 at AMC Framingham (22 Flutie Pass, Framingham). Doors open at 6PM and film is 7PM-9PM. It’s an inspiring, true story of Opportunity, the rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving for 15 years. Recommended for ages 14+. Tickets are free. Registration is required (with the code at that link) and confirmed on first-come/first-served basis.

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will celebrate National Fossils Day on October 8, 1PM-4PM, with a full schedule of short talks and table-top presentations for all ages about invertebrate paleontology and evolution. The program features paleontologists who speak Spanish and English. The cost is included in the cost of museum admission. Free parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage (map).

The Cambridge Science Festival has expanded its schedule, now October 3-9 across more venues in Cambridge. Scan and search the Festival Guide of events — 116 so far, with perhaps more to be added soon. All events are free and open to the public, but several have limited capacity and require advance reservations, via links in the Festival Guide.

The original schedule of events, all at the Kendall/MIT Open Space (292 Main Street), has a different theme each day:

• October 6: Science + Climate — dedicated to all things environmental, renewable, and sustainable
• October 7: Science + Food — the latest in edible chemistry, at a “farmer’s market of the future”
• October 8: Science + Fashion — runway shows, exhibitions, discussion and interaction with designers, makers, engineers, brands, artisans, influencers and the public
• October 9: Science + Carnival — a family-friendly, science-themed, Great American Carnival, noon-4PM featuring a Main Stage, Midway, Side Shows, Walk-abouts, with “competitions and challenges, interactive engineering and hands-on experiments, design workshops and demonstrations, from telescopes to microscopes, from celestial bodies to synthetic bodies, lasers, DNA, the brain, from marine biology to biological machines, from circuit-boards to circus-shows… and very many robots!”

WTS-Boston’s outreach group, Transportation YOU will host the 2022 Transportation YOU Boston Summit for all gender identities, with a focus on girls, on October 15, 10AM-3PM at Emmanuel College (400 Fenway, Boston). It will introduce students to transportation planning and engineering and feature hands-on activities workshops led by transportation professionals. It’s free, and lunch is included. Registration is required and will close on October 1 or when 100 have registered. For more information, contact Emily Buck at 508-823-2245 or transportationyouboston@gmail.com.

The New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center (16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick) will host Astronomy Day on October 1, 4PM-9PM.

Jr. Tech will sponsor a Girls STEM Summit at Wentworth Institute of Technology (550 Huntington Ave, Boston) on October 23, 8AM-4PM.  It’s aimed at all persons who identify as female, non-binary, or other gender identity or expression in Grades 8-12 who love STEM and would like to learn about emerging STEM careers. Sponsors include Akamai Foundation, NationalGrid, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Eastern Bank, and SIM Boston. The cost is $70 and includes lunch. Register online for individuals or groups of students. For more information, email rachel@juniortech.org.