MAHacks is a hackathon produced by high schoolers for high schoolers. Following five earlier events, MAHacks VI will be held in-person, noon-to-noon on March 19-20. High-school students may apply, and middle-school students may be accepted on a case-by-case basis (email team@mahacks.com). Adults are not admitted, except as mentors or sponsors (for those roles email team@mahacks.com).
Category Archives: Events
Grades 9-12: Register Now for Northeastern Splash!, In-Person, Mar. 26
Each spring, NEPTUN (a Northeastern University student group) hosts Splash!, a free program for students in Grades 9-12 to take fun and informative mini-classes led by Northeastern undergraduate students. This year, Splash! will again be held in-person at Ryder Hall on the Northeastern campus, on March 26, 8:45AM-6:40PM. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 72 hours will be required, and current plans will require masking. The $0 cost includes free pizza and a T-shirt. Registration is now open and is first-come/first-served and requires setting up a free student account. For more information, see the FAQs or contact nu.neptun@gmail.com. You can also access online recordings of Digital Splash! courses from last spring. Among the 26 in-person Splash! courses this year are these STEM offerings:
- Exploring the Engineering Design Process with Rube Goldberg Machines
- Playful Peep Science
- [ACCESS_GRANTED]: 1N7R0 70 H4CK1NG
- The Key to Unlocking Data: An Intro to Database Management
- Can We Make You Enjoy Math?
- Let there be Lights!
- Emoji: How They Work and Why They Break Everything
- Epigenetics: Why everything you know about genetics is wrong
- I’m So Tired: Why You Feel Like You Never Get A Good Night of Sleep
- Plant-on-Plant Violence
- Glowing Plants? Yes, Glowing Plants.
- Get Some Structure in Your Life: Modelling the Cytoskeleton
HMSC Online: Animal Encounters — Super Skeletons, Apr. 9
Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will host another free, online session of Animal Encounters called Super Skeletons on April 9, 4PM-4:45PM. Register here at least 30 minutes prior to the event.
McAuliffe Center: Star-Gazing Mar. 8; “Big Astronomy” Planetarium Show Mar. 18
The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host an evening of stargazing and observation on March 8, 5:30PM-7:30PM (weather permitting), in FSU’s O’Connor parking lot by Maynard Road in Framingham. Masks are required.
On March 18 at 6:30PM, the Center’s public planetarium show will be Big Astronomy: People, Places, Discoveries, a full-dome film suitable for all ages, followed by a discussion with the Director of the Center and a graduate student about career paths and areas of expertise in physics and astronomy. Tickets are $5.
Science Club for Girls: Virtual Catalyst Awards, Apr. 5
Register here (tickets $0 to $1000) for Science Club for Girls‘ annual fundraiser, the Catalyst Awards, which will be hosted virtually this year on April 5, 5:30PM-7PM, with the theme Transforming the Face of STEM. The evening will highlight SCFG’s successes and celebrate over 27 years of empowering and inspiring girls and women in STEM. NBC10 Boston Morning News Anchor Latoyia Edwards will emcee the program, which will present the 2022 Catalyst Awardees:
- Dr. Yvonne Greenstreet, CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
- Dr. Mariana Matus, CEO of Biobot Analytics
- Dr. Nancy Simonian, CEO of Syros Pharmaceuticals
In other news… SCFG Live! — the weekly online/TV science show produced by SCFG for ages 5-8 — has just started its fourth season. You can catch up on all 15 episodes of Season 3 at that link.
TechGirlz: Free, Online Workshops for Girls in Grades 5-8
TechGirlz, a nonprofit program of CompTIA, is hosting over 30 free, online workshops running in two-hour sessions throughout March and April for girls in Grades 5-8.
HMSC Online: Free Events for Various Ages, Feb. 23 & Mar. 9
Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will host these free, online events:
- Lessons from Plants: Online book discussion for older children and teens, February 23, 6PM-7PM. Register here.
- After-School Animal Encounters: Get Growing!: For younger children, March 9, 4PM-4:45PM. Register here.
FSU McAuliffe Center: Undiscovered Worlds — In-Person or Online, Feb. 25
The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host the film Undiscovered Worlds, February 25, followed by a presentation and Q&A about NASA’s search for exoplanets. The presentation and Q&A will be with Katharine Hesse and Evan Tey from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Science Office at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. You may to attend either:
- In-person: 7PM for the film (recommended for ages 12+) followed by the presentation and Q&A at 7:30PM, $5 per person. Register here.
- On-line: 7:30PM presentation and Q&A, free. Register here.
Broad Institute: Virtual Seminar for Rare Disease Day, Feb. 28
The Broad Institute will honor an international event, Rare Disease Day, on February 28 with its own free, virtual seminar, Spotlight on Cancer, 2PM-5PM, streamed live from Broad’s auditorium. Register here.
Grades 7-8: Register by Mar. 1 for Virtual MIT Spark, Mar. 12-13
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