The Discovery Museum in Acton will bring back its First Friday Nights Free starting October 3, courtesy of MathWorks. Free admission from 4:30PM to 8PM on the first Friday of each month, October-June.

It’s not required, but visitors are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food donation to be distributed to the Acton Food Pantry and Open Table.

The InvenTeam Grants Initiative, created by the Lemelson-MIT Program, offers teams of high school students, educators, and mentors grants of $7500 to develop technological solutions to real-world issues the students care about. Applications are now open for teams seeking grants. Up to ten schools are awarded grants each year, with Newton included among past successful teams.

Apply here by Wednesday, April 23.

The Acton-Boxborough Math Competition is holding a free online math contest for middle school students held November 16-17. The test will consist of fifteen problems ranging in difficulty. The problems will be posted on Saturday morning at 10AM, and submission are due on Sunday night at 11:30PM. No pre-registration is required. Learn more here.

Lemelson-MIT is presenting three webinars for high-school students to explore Intellectual Property (IP) — how to protect ideas. The webinars are useful for debate clubs to learn more about this year’s national debate topic on IP but are open to all. Register here.

• Orientation to the intellectual property system: September 11 (recording available here)
• Hot topics regarding U.S. IP laws & careers in IP: October 24, 8:30PM-10:30PM ET
• Deep dive into arguments for/against strengthening U.S. intellectual property protections: November 20, 8PM-9:15PM ET.  This Includes individualized coaching and Q&A for teams who pre-register.

The NASA TechRise Student Challenge is a national contest to design an experiment to be tested on a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon. Teams must include at least four students in grades 6-12 and one school employee. Sixty winning teams will each be given $1500 to build the experiment, support from mentors, and a spot for their experiment on a flight. Submissions are due on November 1, and winners will be announced January 21. 

The Northeast U.S. Ecosystems Data Jam is a contest dedicated to engaging students in data science and ecology. Students will analyze local data sets collected by professional scientists and create an original work to convey their interpretations. Possible media include graphics, songs, videos, computer games, plays, books, and more. Early-bird schoolyard registration ends October 15, and all pre-registration is due January 15. 

Founded in 2013, the Congressional App Challenge is a prestigious national competition for middle and high school students to design original apps. Each congressional district selects a winning app to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol Building and online, with Rep. Jake Auchincloss selecting the winner of district MA04, which includes Newton. Apps can be built using any programming language for any platform, with no limits on theme or topic. Last year’s local winner developed Handshake, an app dedicated to live interpretation of ASL and English during conversations between hearing and deaf individuals. Submissions are due October 24 at 12PM. Register here.