The MIT Museum (265 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge) will host its next Teen Science Cafe for high-school students on April 21, 6-8:30PM, focused on the search for habitable exoplanets and how we might survive on them.  Admission is free and dinner will be provided.  Seating is limited and registration is required.  Doors will open at 5:45PM and no one will be admitted after 7PM. The event will include space trivia, hands-on activities, short talks and conversations with scientists, and time to explore the Museum galleries.

Let’s Build is a family volunteering initiative bringing engineering into Needham’s elementary schools by training family and community volunteers to support classroom design challenges.  Its major fundraiser, the Let’s Build Engineering Extravaganza, will be held April 28, 10AM-2PM at Broadmeadow Elementary School (120 Broad Meadow Rd, Needham) for Pre-K, elementary, and middle-school children and their families.  Suggested donation is $5 per family.  Scheduled activities include an inflatable planetarium, catapults in “The Real Angry Birds,” visualization of sound, Hot Wheels: Exploring Speed and Distance, the physics of rhythmic gymnastics, Hoppers with Olin College, make a hovercraft and more!

STEM Pathways will host its annual Spring Dinner and Dialogue at Boston University on April 26, 6-8:30PM, for teachers and administrators to confer and network with STEM outreach programs, universities, industries, and related resources in the greater Boston area. Admission is free. Register by April 23 at 10PM.

Sanofi Genzyme will host a panel discussion on MetroWest employers’ engagement in STEM education on April 4, 8:15-10:30AM, at their Framingham Science Center (49 New York Ave., Framingham). Panelists include Kevin Flynn of Boston Heart Diagnostics, David Aldous of Sanofi Genzyme, and Newton resident Groot Gregory of Synopsys.  It’s free and open to the public, with light breakfast available. RSVP online.

MIT’s Edgerton Center holds free Science on Saturday programs approximately monthly during the school year for elementary, middle, and high school students — as well as their parents and teachers.  Each is a fun, one-hour, interactive presentation beginning at 10AM in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge.  Kids under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Attendees also receive same-day admission to the MIT Museum at half-price. No pre-registration is necessary but seating is limited and first-come, first-seated.  The next program will be April 7: Optics. For more information, contact Dr. Todd H. Rider, Mad Scientist in Residence, at thor@mit.edu.

Following last year’s event, the 2018 March for Science (“Science Strikes Back”) will be held on April 14, 1PM-3PM, at Christopher Columbus Park in Boston (map).  Please RSVP here to help the organizers plan (where you can also sign up for updates) and you can also sign up to volunteer or donate.

Public Telescope Nights:  The Clay Center Observatory, on the campus of Dexter Southfield School (20 Newton Street in Brookline; 5th floor), holds Public Telescope Nights 8PM to 9PM on Tuesdays, March 27 through June 5.  Go here to pick a date and register in advance.  Come look through the largest telescope in greater Boston. Events are canceled if weather is rainy or overcast:  Call 617-454-2795 one hour before the event for a recorded message.

Introduction to Astronomy:  The Clay Center Observatory at Dexter Southfield has teamed up with Newton Community Education to offer a course about telescopes, constellations, sky navigation, Earth’s seasons, and phases of the moon. Weather permitting, the class will use the Clay Center’s 25” research-grade telescope and other telescopes — and also explore the fiber-optic-lit Stars Court and the 3D Moon Court. Three Mondays, April 23-May 7, 6:30-8:30PM at the Clay Center at Dexter Southfield School. $75 fee.  Register here.