The MIT Museum has re-opened in its new Kendall Square location in the Gambrill Center (MIT Building E-28), 314 Main Street in Cambridge. It’s open daily, 10AM-5PM. The Museum includes public meeting spaces, a hands-on Maker Hub, and freshly conceived, interactive exhibits presenting high-level research for those new to science or already experts.

The NASA TechRise Challenge invites teams of students in Grades 6-12 to design experiments to be run in a high-altitude balloon. A TechRise team may have any number of students, and all team members must be from the same school. Each team must have one Team Lead who is a teacher or school employee. Teams must submit their designs by October 24, and the winning teams will be build their designs in 2023. Winners will be announced on January 12. Sixty teams with winning designs will each receive a grant of $1,500 to build their experiments, technical support and office hours with mentors, as well as an assigned spot on a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon.

The Broad Discovery Center is a new, free, public, educational space about how researchers at the Broad Institute and elsewhere tackle some of the toughest questions in biomedicine to understand human health and disease, and create new approaches for treatments. It’s located on the first floor of the Broad Institute’s headquarters (415 Main Street in Kendall Square, Cambridge). Exhibits address exhibits psychiatric conditions, cancer, infectious diseases, heart disease, diabetes, and rare genetic conditions. You can get a preview of its five galleries during the Cambridge Science Festival, October 3-6. It will open during regular business hours starting October 31 and will be staffed 10AM-3PM.

Each fall and spring, NEPTUN (a Northeastern University student group) hosts Splash!, a free program for students in Grades 9-12 to take fun and informative mini-classes led by Northeastern undergraduate students. This year, Splash! will again be held in-person at Ryder Hall (11 Leon St, Boston) on the Northeastern campus, on November 12, 8:45AM-6:40PM. The $0 cost includes free pizza and a T-shirt. Registration is now open 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. Among the 26 in-person Splash! courses this year are these STEM offerings:

• Epigenetics: Why everything you know about genetics is wrong
• I’m So Tired: Why You Feel Like You Never Get A Good Night of Sleep
• Plant-on-Plant Violence
• Glowing Plants? Yes, Glowing Plants.
• Get Some Structure in Your Life: Modelling the Cytoskeleton
• Exploring the Engineering Design Process with Rube Goldberg Machines
• Playful Peep Science
• [ACCESS_GRANTED]: 1N7R0 70 H4CK1NG
• The Key to Unlocking Data: An Intro to Database Management
• Can We Make You Enjoy Math?
• Let there be Lights!
• 👀😲👍 – Emoji: How They Work and Why They Break Everything

All Massachusetts members of Congress have joined other House colleagues in hosting a Congressional App Challenge in their Congressional Districts. Students in Grades 6-12 may register, as individuals or in teams of up to four, in the Congressional District in which they live or attend school. Newton is in District MA04 (Representative Jake Auchincloss), where so far five teams have registered. The competition is open to all eligible students regardless of coding experience (see CAC flyer and CAC rules).

Apps may be created in any language, on any platform, on any theme or purpose. They must be submitted by November 1 at 12PM. Submissions will be evaluated by local judges who work in academic, software, and entrepreneurial fields. The winning app from each participating Congressional District will be announced in December and will be highlighted online and in an exhibit in the Capitol.

The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) recognizes high-school and college students, as well as educators, with annual awards. Applications are open now until October 20 for the Aspirations in Computing (AiC) awards for young women, genderqueer, or non-binary students in Grades 9-12 to recognize their computing-related achievements, interests, and aspirations. Applications for Aspirations in Computing Educator awards are open until December 1.

The Discovery Museum (177 Main Street, Acton) seeks Science & Engineering Communication Fellows. Apply by October 3. For further information, email Liz Leahey, Director of STEAM Education. Accepted Fellows will attend professional-development workshops 10AM-3PM on October 22 and November 5,  then until early December, consult with education professionals to develop a hands-on activity, and test their hands-on prototypes with Discovery Museum educators. Finally, on December 2, 5PM-8PM, Fellows will meet with the public and share their research and hands-on activities at the Museum;s Meet the Scientists & Engineers event, held during December’s Free Friday Night.

The TYE Entrepreneurship Academy is a rigorous, school-year extracurricular program for Boston-area students in Grades 9-12 interested in STEM, business, and social innovation. It meets biweekly on Saturdays at the Cambridge Innovation Center, September-May. It uses a proven curriculum in entrepreneurship and business acceleration, taught by experts in the field, to help students tackle real-world problems. Along the way, it helps students identify and develop pathways to reach personal and professional goals. In teams, students build products, apps or service-based businesses using design thinking, customer feedback, iteration, and lightweight business models. Financial aid may be available. Applications are due September 30. Register to attend an informational webinar (5PM-6PM) on September 6 or September 13 or September 20.