Now in its fifth year, GirlCon is a free, online technology conference run by female high-school students for female and non-binary students in Grades 8-12 to network, learn, and explore careers in technology. It will be held online, June 27-30, 4PM-8PM daily. The agenda includes keynotes, breakout and professional development sessions. Register by June 25. Recordings of sessions will be available for those registered, so register even if a session is full. For more information, email team@girlcon.org.

The New England Aquarium will present a free webinar, The Hidden Culture of Whales, on June 1, 10AM-11AM. Marine biologist Dr. Asha de Vos, who founded Oceanswell and its Sri Lankan Blue Whale Project, will share insights about new models of marine conservation and the importance of local heroes for every coastline. Register here.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is offering its Science on Saturdays programs virtually this year, and registration is NOT required. The programs are free and designed for children aged 5-17, their parents, and teachers. On Saturday, June 5 at 10AM, the program will be Aviation Engineering, featuring a discussion of how Lincoln Laboratory develops aviation technologies including unmanned air vehicles (drones).  Click here for the Zoom link at the time of the event..

Worcester Polytechnic Institute and WGBH will present the annual TouchTomorrow festival of science, technology, and robots virtually this year,  June 6-12. It’s family-friendly, fun, free, and open to all ages — with a particular focus on what’s interesting for middle- and high-school students. Programming includes hands-on interactive challenges (games, math modeling), exhibits, presentations (Disney Imagineers, LEGO brick designer, cancer research, Mars exploration, and the Magical STEM Show), and STEM Pathway discussions about STEM education opportunities. Register here.

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture will present a free, live, online, family-friendly event, After-School Animal Encounters: Movement, on May 19, 3PM-3:45PM. Museum staff will discuss animals in motion. Register here at least 30 minutes beforehand to get a link to the event and to make a voluntary contribution if you wish to support HMSC.

On June 10, 7PM-8:30PM, the Blue Hill Observatory will host a webinar, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes, in which local historian Eric J. Dolan will discuss his book of that title. To support the nonprofit work of the observatory, there is a registration fee ($10 for BHO members, $15 for others). Register to make a donation, get sign-in credentials for the webinar, and optionally buy a copy of his book.

Learning Unlimited and its many Splash programs are co-hosting Rainstorm on May 15-16, noon to 6PM both days, for Grades 8-12. The days are packed with free, online courses, 30-60 minutes each and taught by undergraduates, graduate students, and experts from across the country. While the deadline for the initial course lottery has passed, you can still sign up for courses on a space-available basis until May 14. Use code NORTHE. For more information, email cloud@learningu.org. The course catalog has these STEM-related courses that appear to still have room:

• Neurons, Mobility, and Rehabilitation Engineering: Current Topics
• Basics of Biomedical Engineering
• Real Rocket Science with Fake Engineers
• Materials Gone Wrong!
• Combat Robotics or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Submit to Our Robot Overlords
• Electrifying Applications of Circuits
• Medical Technology: Robots, Devices, and Imaging
• Why do aircraft look the way they look?
• The Truth Behind e
• Social Media and Data Science
• How to write quality code like a professional
• How to Win at (Some) Games
• How to Win at (Some More) Games
• Maximum Likelihood Estimation
• Natural Language Processing (How Siri, Google Translate, Alexa, etc. work)
• Hands on Natural Language Processing (Write the Code that Makes Google Translate/Alexa Work)
• Intro to Computer Vision
• How to Lose Money On The Internet: Political Statistics and Prediction Markets
• Geography: Thinking Outside the Map
• A Battle of Forces: The Role of Inflammation in Disease
• Epidemiology: Disease Snapshots
• The Science of Happiness
• Introduction to Computer-Aided Drug Design
• Chemical Origins of Life
• Understanding Dark Matter
• From the Nature to Your Tap: Water Treatment, Quality, and Sustainability
• Human Identification through DNA Typing
• Introduction to Environmental Policy
• Advances in Super-Resolution and Fluorescence Microscopy
• CRISPR and TALENs and ZFNs, Oh My!: Advancements in Gene Editing
• Introduction to Light microscopy: how colorful can small things be?
• Crystals for Harnessing and Controlling Energy
• Big Ideas in Solid State Physics: The Riddles of Graphene
• The Cat Conspiracy and Other Mind-Bending Parasites
• Geobiology: What the Earth Teaches us about the History of Life
• Physics at the Atomic Scale and Beyond
• I’m Not a Morning Person: Chronobiology
• Psychiatric and Neurological Disorder
• This is Your Brain on Drugs: Neuopsychopharmacology
• All About Alcohol: Neuroscience, Genetics, and Society
• Introduction to Chemical Analysis
• Disability – Neurodiversity – Superpower: A Neuroscientific Examination
• Medicinal Chemistry I
• Medicinal Chemistry II
• Molecular Imaging of Cancer
• Anti-Vaxxers And Pseudo-Experts: Science Myths Reconstrued
• Psychology: Sleep and Lucid Dreaming
• Glowing brains: how science can see past the mush
• The Seeing Blind: Understanding Vision and Technological Advances
• A not-so-brief History of Particle Accelerators
• Journey through the COSMOS
• Seared steaks, baked cookies, toasted marshmallows – what makes them taste so good?
• Ask a Surgeon about Appendicitis
• Ask a Surgeon about Cancer
• The Quantum Complex
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy
• What in the World is Anthropology?
• Magic Space Balloons and You: Molecular Orbitals and How Chemistry Really Works

The Clay Center Observatory at Dexter Southfield school generally holds public telescope nights on alternate Tuesdays, starting one hour after sunset, weather permitting. During the pandemic, the center’s astronomer and director, Dr. Felipe Santos, is presenting observations from the observatory in remote sessions over Zoom. Check the link above on alternate Tuesdays (May 11, 25, June 8, …) to see if weather permits and to get the Zoom link.

The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University continues its season of free, virtual planetarium AstroNights events for families (ages 7+) with an online presentation, No Planet B: Galaxies Galore, on May 21 at 7PM. In a 30-minute presentation (followed  by Q&A session), learn about planets outside our solar system. View the presentation on Zoom (registration required) or the Christa McAuliffe YouTube channel, where you can view recordings of previous AstroNights events.

Thirty-six events and activities of Framingham State University’s recent Science on State Street event are now available online.