As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, the Discovery Museum (177 Main Street, Acton) will host its first STEM + Movie Night on the Lawn on June 23 (rain date June 24). Admission to the event is free; the museum will be closed except for access to bathrooms. Activities start at 7:30PM and the movie, A Bug’s Life, will start at 8PM. Advance reservations are not required. Upcoming STEM + Movie Nights on the Lawn will be:

• FernGully – July 21, 7:30 activities, 8:30 movie start (rain date July 22)
• Hidden Figures – August 11, 7:00 activities, 8:00 movie start (rain date August 12)

The Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society (STARS) at New England Sci-Tech (16 Tech Circle, Natick) and the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society will both participate in the worldwide Amateur Radio Field Day with their own family-friendly events open to the public on June 25-26.

• The STARS event in Natick event will be open to the public June 25, 2PM-5PM and June 26, 10AM-2PM. Sign up on the form on this page. STARS will offer educational demonstrations, maker activities, tours, soldering workshops, and telescope viewing (weather permitting). The Field Day will operate outside in vans and tents using auxiliary power to simulate emergency conditions, but the building will be open. You will not need a radio license to participate in the radio practice and contests, as you can operate with one of the club’s General or Extra class licensees as the control operator. On-site training will be provided. Bonus:  NEST’s Yard Sale continues and will be open June 26, 9AM-Noon.
• The Wellesley Amateur Radio Society will celebrate Amateur Radio Field Day with an event at the gazebo in the Needham War Memorial Park, open to public June 25 afternoon and June 26 morning.

Newton families with students in ages 4-16 — who are interested in STEM and/or robotics (or think they may be!) — are invited to a free information session about First Lego League (FLL), on Wednesday, June 22, 7:30-8:00PM, hosted by Newton’s high school robotics team, the LigerBots. Parents, guardians, students, and potential mentors can learn about how the FLL season and competitions run, what is required to participate, and what students can gain from the experience. This Info Night will be held at Newton South High School. Sign up here.

FIRST Lego League (FLL) is an annual robotics competition in which teams of 2-10 students build a robot, solve engineering challenges, and learn in a friendly competition. FLL offers different divisions for ages 4-6, 6-10, and 9-16+.

Several students currently on the LigerBots started in robotics by participating in FLL, and the high-school team has been extremely generous in mentoring Newton FLL teams and hosting two major FLL competitions each year. The Info Night speakers will include past FLL participants, ready to share experiences and answer questions. They will provide information on how students can start their own teams — and how adult do not need backgrounds in engineering to be successful FLL coaches! For more information, email cso@ligerbots.com

Boston’s Museum of Science will host a free, all-day forum — EmPowered by AI: Should We Engineer a More Sustainable City? — on June 26, 10AM-4PM. The forum will explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to develop sustainable solutions to the climate crisis on cities. Lunch will be provided. No background knowledge of artificial intelligence is required. This program is supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Toyota Research Institute, BNY Mellon, and The Boston Foundation.

As part of its Summer Thursdays evening events for ages 18+, Boston’s Museum of Science will host three films from the Woods Hole Film Festival at the museum’s Mugar Omni Theater:

• June 16:  Bruce & Alvin, a short documentary about the history and future of Alvin, one of the world’s only remaining publicly-funded manned submersibles
• July 21: After Antarctica, a documentary about an international expedition to this changing continent
• August 18: Our Future, Our Fight: Wildfires, a short episode from a 10-part docuseries about climate change and fire

The New England Aquarium will celebrate World Ocean Day on June 8 with activities:

• Outside, on Central Wharf:  An Ask-a-Scientist booth and an interactive ocean banner.
• Inside: Presentations at the top of the Giant Ocean Tank about 30×30, the global initiative to protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030, and interactive activities related to Marine Protected Areas.

The New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center will celebrate ARRL Field Day — a worldwide event for amateur radio operators — with a family friendly Ham Radio Field Day open to the public, on June 25 (2PM-5PM) and June 26 (10AM-2PM) at 16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick. There will be tours of the NEST center, soldering workshops, maker activities, hidden transmitter hunts, and radio-operator license testing. You do not need a radio license to participate. On-site training will be provided.

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will celebrate the summer solstice on June 21, 5PM-9PM, with free admission to all four HMSC museums, as well as hands-on activities, food, music, and more. Free parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

The Rocketry Club of the New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center (16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick) meets on Fridays, 7PM-8:30PM, and Sundays, 2PM-4PM. 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 between May and September, at 320 School Street in Acton. The first launch event will be May 28, 10AM-4PM. For more information, email info@nescitech.org.