Category Archives: Opportunities

Applications now open for 2023-24 Lemelson-MIT high-school InvenTeams

The Lemelson-MIT Program within MIT’s School of Engineering administers the InvenTeams program, in which teams of high-school students, educators, and mentors receive grants of up to $7500 to invent working technological solutions to real-world problems. Each InvenTeam chooses its own problem to solve. Up to eight schools will be awarded grants. Newton has a successful history with InvenTeams.

For the 2023-24 school year, the grant-application process for teachers is now open until April 27. Invitations will be sent to selected applicants on May 3 for them to submit final applications by September 5, and winners will be announced on September 27. There will be webinars to explain the process on March 7 & 21 and April 4 & 18.

Grades 7-12: Register by Feb. 19, for MIT’s Spring HSSP on Saturdays, Feb. 25 – Apr. 8

MIT’s Spring HSSP — a six-week academic program for Grades 7-12 — will be back in-person at MIT on Saturdays, February 25 to April 8 (except March 18), 1PM-4PM.  Online registrations are open now, and all applications completed by February 19 will be considered equally in the course-assignment lottery (registrations after that will be taken first-come/first-served as space is available). The cost is $50 per student (regardless of the number of courses taken) and generous, need-based financial aid is available. Email spring-hssp@mit.edu for more information. The Spring HSSP course catalog covers many academic and non-academic topics, including these STEM offerings:

  • Astrobiology
  • Cancer Immunology
  • Chemistry of the Environment
  • Histochemistry and special stains in pathology and Etsy
  • Introduction to Organic Chemistry
  • Learn Programming Like It’s 1986
  • Modeling Mechanics, Chemistry, and Circuits via Differential Equations and JavaScript
  • Numerical Methods
  • So You Want to be a Financier
  • STEM Lecture Series
  • The Neuroscience of Memory and Intelligence
  • Topics in Global Health

Discovery Museum offers scholarships to Mass. students in Grades 11-12

The  Discovery Museum in Acton has announced the 2023 Discovery Museum Scholarship program, which will award four one-time $1,500 scholarships to Massachusetts high school juniors or seniors who embody the mission and values of the Museum. For one of the four awards, preference will be given to Discovery Museum past or current employees or volunteers. Video or written applications are being accepted until March 31.

TKS: 10-month online global innovation program, ages 13-17

TKS is a ten-month (September-June) global innovation program for ambitious students in ages 13-17. It currently has in-person programs in three cities in Canada and three in the U.S., with future plans for other cities — including Boston at some point. For Boston and the rest of the world outside those six cities, TKS has an online program with weekly online sessions of 2-3 hours each, on weekends or weekdays after school. Tuition is $4,890 and TKS is committed to supporting ambitious students with financial aid on a need basis. Early applications are due February 28, after which applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until May or until the program is full.

Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments re-opens

The Harvard Museums of Science and Culture (HMSC) have re-opened the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. The current permanent exhibition in the Putnam Gallery is TIME, LIFE, & MATTER: Science in Cambridge, open Sunday-Friday, 11AM-4PM. The exhibit presents stories based on items such as a geometric sector designed by Galileo, electrical experimentation apparatus purchased by Benjamin Franklin, clocks illustrating the development of modern synchronized time-keeping, medical apparatus designed in part by Charles Lindbergh, and artifacts of top-secret research by Harvard scientists during World War II.

Application open for PROMYS: BU’s Summer Math Program for young (motivated) scientists

Applications are now available for Boston University’s PROMYS, a six-week (July 2-August 12) residential summer program for strongly motivated high-school students (ages 14-19) to explore in-depth the creative world of mathematics. About 80 students are selected from a nationwide/worldwide pool based on online applications consisting of solutions to challenging problem sets, school transcripts, teacher recommendations, and short essays explaining their interest in the program. The cost is on a sliding scale by family income, and full or partial need-based financial aid is available as necessary to ensure all who are selected may attend.  Applications are due March 5. For more information, see the FAQs and then contact promys@bu.edu.