For its weekly meeting at 7PM on January 18, the Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society at New England Sci-Tech (16 Tech Circle, Natick) will host The History, Renovation, and Future of MIT’s Green Building’s Radome, presented by MIT Professor Kerri Cahoy and members of the MIT Radio Society. Face masks are required.
Category Archives: Events
Online: Tracks & Bones & Other Surprising Winter Finds, Jan. 18 & 20
Mass Audubon Habitat‘s Barbara Bates will lead a free, online exploration for all ages to learn about tracks and signs of animals that can be observed in winter. The program will be presented twice, sponsored by two different libraries, and registration is required, via these links: January 18 or January 20, both 6:30PM-7:30PM.
Newton Free Library Online: Boston’s Great Innovations, Jan. 27
The Newton Free Library and Historic Newton will host a free, online presentation for adults, Boston’s Great Innovations, on January 27, 7PM-8PM. Registration is required and closes two hours before the start time.
McAuliffe Center: From Mission Control to the Moon, Jan. 28
The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host From Mission Control to the Moon, January 28, 3:30PM-5PM, for Grades 4-7 at the McAuliffe Branch Library community room. The program is free and registration is required.
Blue Hill Observatory: Model Mayhem: Meteorological Forecasting Madness, Feb. 2
On February 2, 11AM-12:30PM, the Blue Hill Observatory will host the first of several free webinars, starting with a discussion called Model Mayhem: Meteorological Forecasting Madness. Five veteran meteorologists will share their experiences of weather forecast guidance products and advances they have witnessed in their thirty-five year careers. Participants will learn how weather forecasting models work and how they often differ in forecasting output. Registration is required.
McAuliffe Center: Star-Gazing and Update on James Webb Space Telescope, Jan. 11
The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host an evening of stargazing and observation of the Moon and Jupiter on January 11, 5PM-7PM, in FSU’s O’Connor parking lot by Maynard Road in Framingham. The event will include an update on the progress of the James Webb Space Telescope since its successful launch on December 25. Masks are required.
New England Sci-Tech: Yard Sale, Jan. 29
The New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center (16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick) will hold a yard sale on January 29, 8AM-Noon, to dispose of surplus items prior to an internal move. There will be games, toys, puzzles, electronics parts, test equipment, band saw, antique radios, network analyzer, spectrum analyzer, laser printer, used kites that need minor repair, kite spars of all sizes (carbon fiber tubes, fiberglass rods, snow stakes, wood dowels), books, t-shirts, science ties, blue glass bottles, hobby motors, antenna cable, rope, electric leaf blowers, safety goggles, tools, meters, transformers, power supplies, more cables, cable-wrap, a 10-shelf 70-bottle wooden wine rack (!), metal project boxes, etc.
MassBay STEM Stories: Feb. 1, Mar. 9, Apr. 7, May 6
MassBay Community College in Wellesley will offer four free, online sessions for high-school students, teachers, adult learners, and community partners to learn about MassBay’s STEM resources and career options. Register for February 1 at 5PM, March 9 at 9AM, April 7 at 5PM, or May 6 at 12PM.
LigerBots Host FIRST LEGO League Eastern Mass. Championship
Many thanks to the LigerBots, Newton’s high-school robotics team, for again hosting the FIRST Lego League (FLL) Massachusetts Eastern Championship yesterday. This year’s event featured the 24 FLL teams in Grades 4-8 that qualified for the event from across eastern Massachusetts, including three teams from Newton: The Selfless Shellfish, Lazer Robotics, and Fuego LEGO. Teams competed in robot matches and in their presentations of both their robot designs and their research-based innovation design projects. All activities were based on this year’s transportation-focused FLL theme, Cargo Connect (see video and overview).
At yesterday’s championship, Lazer Robotics received the award for achieving the highest score in the robot matches.
Team Fuego LEGO — all 7th graders at Oak Hill MS — have been together for three years, having started at Bowen Elementary. They have been working on their robot since this summer and qualified for this event by winning the Core Values Award at an FLL competition in Springfield earlier this month, which was featured in the local TV news.
The Selfless Shellfish — also 7th graders at Oak Hill MS — started at Zervas Elementary. They did very well yesterday, coming close to high score in the robot matches and working more smoothly than their “nail-biter” performance at the recent qualifying competition in Easton. They programmed their robot in Python, a more challenging language than Scratch, and together they built a library of code for robot maneuvers that all team members could share.
And mentor Greer Tan Swiston won the Outstanding Volunteer award.
Due to Covid, this year’s championship was not open to the public, and the Ligerbots were not able to host the wonderful STEM fair that has accompanied the event in earlier years.
James Webb Space Telescope: Launch Rescheduled for Dec. 24
The James Webb Space Telescope — 3 times larger than the Hubble and 100 times more powerful — has been under development for 25 years and is now scheduled to launch at 7:22AM on December 24. It’s designed to see if there’s life on exoplanets and also to peer back to see the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang. Framingham State University’s McAuliffe Center will host an online celebration of the launch (free) at that time