Category Archives: Recommendations

Update on Newton South’s DaVinci Program

Opportunities, Recommendations

Newton South HS’s interdisciplinary STEAM program, DaVinci, is in its second year.  Its first cohort, now Juniors, started the year with computer design, building models of wind turbines, and they are now moving into engineering to build on their models.  Next year, as Seniors, they will undertake longitudinal, year-long, student-driven projects, for which they will present proposals this spring.  Last fall, a new group of Sophomores joined DaVinci and has proven to be highly curious and motivated — thus well suited to the program. Next year’s Newton South Sophomores — and their parents — are encouraged to contact Newton South Science Department head Gerry Gagnon (gerard_gagnon@newton.k12.ma.us) to learn more about the DaVinci Program and explore how it may beneficially fit their academic plans.

“Hidden Figures” STEM Movie Opened This Weekend

Recommendations

Hidden Figures tells the inspiring, true, and highly acclaimed story of three brilliant African American women working at NASA –Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson — who helped develop our space program and served as the brains behind the launch of the first American into orbit.  It opened this weekend nationwide, including at these local theatres.  Here’s an excerpt of the book on which it’s based and the Boston Globe’s review of the movie.

Science Club for Girls: #TeenSTEM Campaign and YLS Summer Showcase

Events, Recommendations

On Monday, August 1, Science Club for Girls launches its 12-day #TeenSTEM Campaign to support its Young Leaders in STEM (YLS) summer program in Boston and Cambridge. See the campaign video and consider making a donation for items such as:

  • Programmable circuit boards for girls to design and make their own wearable technology
  • Materials for hands-on STEM outreach activities designed by teens
  • Career-exploration field trips and job shadowings at leading STEM companies
  • Gel transfer stacks for working with proteins during “neuroscience week”

The public is also invited to the YLS Summer Showcase on August 11, 5:30-7:30PM, at Simmons College’s Paresky Conference Center (Main College Building, 300 Fenway in Boston), where YLS students will present their summer projects.  Register (free) and donate (optional) for a terrific program.  Check out Science Club for Girls on Facebook and Twitter.

A note about reading NewtonSTEM’s weekly newsletter…

Recommendations

NewtonSTEM aims to write about STEM events as early as possible, and in general, we refrain from repeated posts about the same event.  This means that events can be lost in the shuffle if they were posted with a lot of lead time.  The NewtonSTEM weekly newsletter includes all new posts written in the previous week, but it does not include all posts relevant to the upcoming week.  In order to keep current on upcoming events, newsletter readers may want to:

  • Review the “Earlier Announcements” list at the end of each newsletter.
  • Review the NewtonSTEM calendar for upcoming events.  (The description of each event includes a link to the NewtonSTEM post about it.)
  • Use the Search box in the right-hand column of the NewtonSTEM site.
  • Click on Categories of interest in the list in the right-hand column of the site.