Researchers from MIT, Boston University, and the University of Delaware will host an outreach event on Microrobotics and Synthetic Biology for middle and high school students , in two sessions on March 9. The program is primarily aimed to support and encourage female and underrepresented minority students to explore STEM. Students will learn how concepts of robotics can foster the development of new biological systems and applications.
Prof. Sambeeta Das will introduce the students to microrobotics, and then Dr. Rashmi Mohanty will discuss the importance of microrobotics in biological applications. Finally, students will receive hands-on experience in controlling magnetically driven microrobots and will guide the microrobots in biological systems.
No registration is required. It’s an Open House in two separate sessions: The morning session (10AM-11:30AM) or the afternoon session (1PM-2:30PM). The event will take place at 500 Technology Square (behind Area 4), MIT NE47-189, in Cambridge.
For information about the event, email Rashmi at rashmipm@mit.edu. For general information or building access, call Cammie at 617-733-3623
Each spring, NEPTUN (a Northeastern University student group) hosts Splash!, a free program for students in Grades 8-12 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 30, 8:30AM-6:40PM. The $0 cost includes free lunch and a T-shirt. Registration is opens at midnight on March 4 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 2020. Among the 20 in-person Splash! courses this year are these STEM offerings:
Bye Bye Baby! V2
Electronics and Soldering Workshop
Python Programming for Pupils
The Entire Internet in an Hour!
Emoji: How They Work and Why They Break Everything
Registration is open Grades 8-12 for Girls STEM Summit-Statewide 2024 on April 7, 8AM-4PM at UMass Lowell. The cost is $75, which includes activities, continental breakfast, lunch, and giveaways. Girls STEM Summit-Statewide 2024 is open to all persons who identify as female, non-binary, or other gender identity or expression. For more information, email rachel@juniortech.org.
Wonderland is a free, 48-hour hackathon, February 23-25, “bringing students from all over the Boston area for a weekend of unhindered creation.” It’s organized by six high-school seniors (including ones from Newton North HS and Newton South HS) under the auspices of nonprofit Hack Club with support from WPS Institute in Newton Centre, which is providing the venue. (Last spring, this team of student organizers ran the Beantown Bash hackathon, also with Hack Club.)
Wonderland is open to high-school students 18 and under. (Older high-school students may email wonderland@hackclub.com to check eligibility.) While drawing mainly from the Greater Boston area, the event also has limited travel stipends available for others to participate from further away.
Wonderland is not a typical hackathon; it doesn’t involve computer hacking, and no coding is required. It’s for both beginners and experienced makers to get together and create. In the words of the organizers, it’s for “any student interested in making projects with their hands. From software, to hardware, and every art project in between, Wonderland is a space for high school students to pursue the unimaginable.”
The organizers describe Wonderland: “Centered around mystery chests, we’re challenging participants to build projects out of what they’re given. How will you combine a Python gif generator and receipt printer? What about a keyboard and RC car? There is no limit to what can be made in Wonderland!”
The event is free and runs from 4PM on Friday to 12PM on Sunday at WPS Institute (160 Herrick Road, Newton Centre). Food and sleeping accommodations are provided. See the parents’ guide.
Students should register here individually. Teams will be created on-site.
Tufts University’s Center for Engineering Education and Outreach will host a live webinar — Engineering Design Challenge — for students in Grades K-12 on February 21 at 4PM. Register here.
“Kids will be presented with an engineering design challenge to do at home with whatever materials they have around the house (cardboard, string, tape, paperclips, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, cups, scissors, paper towel rolls, random LEGO bricks, etc). While attendees build, a panel of Tufts undergraduate students and a professional engineer will talk about engineering and their paths to studying engineering.”
Science on State Street is Framingham State University’s annual science festival, focusing on themes relating to planet Earth, and the ways that STEM fields support environmental justice, renewable energy, and environmental sustainability. This year it will take place on April 27, noon-3PM at the Christa Mcauliffe Center and O’Connor parking lot at Framingham State University.
The organizers seek to recruit exhibitors in STEM, arts, and cultural sectors to offer “hands-on activities and thought-provoking discussions for all ages, relating directly or indirectly to the festival’s environmental theme.” Potential exhibitors should apply here by March 1. Accepted exhibitors will be provided one table and two chairs, and the event will take place outdoors.
The LigerBots, Newton’s competitive high school robotics team, will host the Massachusetts East State Championship FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament at Newton North High School on December 16, along with a STEAM activity expo for children and a robot zoo. The tournament and the expo are free and open to the public. No registration is required for visitors. The tournament runs 9AM-4PM, and the STEAM expo hours are 10AM-3PM.
The STEAM expo provides FLL students, their parents, coaches, and the community with educational, hands-on activities while the competition is going on. LigerBots expect to offer many STEAM activities and demonstrations for kids aged 5 – 14, plus displays of robots made by high school students, and activities provided by local companies and organizations. Please take a look at this Flickr album of a previous event to see what happens at tournament and STEAM expo. For more information, email info@ligerbots.org.
MassBay Community College will hold its biannual Student STEM Expo on Monday, December 11, 1PM-2PM in the cafeteria of its Wellesley Hills campus, as well as virtually from December 11–15. Students will showcase their work in engineering, math, computer science, life sciences, and biotechnology programs for the MassBay community, local STEM professionals, and the general public.
On November 18, Newton’s high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, hosted a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Newton Qualifier tournament — in which teams of elementary and middle schoolers passionate about robotics compete using LEGO robots that they have designed and built. The LigerBots have hosted FLL tournaments since 2008. This event had LEGOs and robots in every corner of the building, booming voices of the MC announcing matches, 14 FLL teams competing, and 70 LigerBot student volunteers working hard to run this show. FLL teams displayed their projects, on this year’s FIRST theme — The Arts — in the Newton North cafeteria.
FLL teams preparing their robots for competition — L: New England Code Crackers, R: Cookie Coders
The LigerBots set up a booth on Newton North’s Main Street corridor to showcase their 2022 FIRST Robotics Competition robot and two hands-on STEAM activities: making custom buttons and origami pieces. The FLL team members enjoyed interacting with the robot — a machine that can shoot giant tennis balls for them to catch — and found the STEAM demonstrations entertaining.
Of the 14 FLL teams that attended, four are from Newton: New England Code Crackers, Cookie Coders, The First Layer, and Voltage.
Newton FLL teams in the qualifying tournament, clockwise from top-left: New England Code Crackers, Cookie, Coders, The First Layer, and Voltage.
The tournament concluded with an awards ceremony and a dance party. All four teams from Newton received awards: Cookie Coders (Innovation Project first place), Voltage (Innovation Project second place), New England Code Crackers (Core Values first place) and The First Layer (Judges Award).
Among the six teams that qualified to continue to the state finals next month are two teams from Newton — Cookie Coders and New England Code Crackers — and four other teams: Goofy Gyros, Mechanical Madness, Acton Avengers, and The Mind Coders. These teams will compete at the upcoming Massachusetts FLL Championship, which will be divided between competitions at WPI and at Newton North High School.
The MA FLL Championship tournament at Newton North High School, also run by the LigerBots, will be on December 16, 9AM-4PM — free and open the public. As many as 48 FLL teams will compete head-to-head, and the LigerBots will once again host a STEAM Expo, run alongside the competition. At the STEAM Expo, 10AM-3PM, FLL team members and all attendees will have the opportunity to engage in a large variety of hands-on STEAM activities, explore a number of local organizations’ booths, and interact with bigger robots from FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge.
Lemelson-MIT and the Digital Harbor Foundation are hosting another workshop webinar it their “Harnessing the Inventive Spirit” series. This one, Electronic Textiles, will be on November 16 at 7PM. Register at that link.
