Category Archives: Resources

Superintendent to recommend additional funding for STEM

Opportunities, Resources

Last week, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced an updated financial strategy to apply 70% of the City’s one-time overlay surplus funds (plus associated interest) as a supplement to the budget for the Newton Public Schools. Today, Newton’s Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Anna Nolin, announced that she will be recommending to the School Committee that, among several “most critical needs of the district” the Superintendent listed, this additional funding should be used in part to:

  • Reduce high school class sizes in math and science

  • Restore some high school electives, most critically in science and engineering (based on course request data from both high schools)

  • Create additional planning time and dedicated math and literacy intervention blocks in the elementary schools where they are needed most

  • Invest in math and STEM curricula which have not been reviewed or upgraded in well over a decade

The School Committee will here the Superintendent’s recommendations at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, December 18.

Museum of Science: EiE offers summertime STEM activities for families

Resources

EiE, a program of Boston’s Museum of Science, offers EiE Families — STEM activities, games and more for families with children ages 4-11 to continue learning in the summer, at home and on the go. Available in English and Spanish, these at-home activities offer engaging, real-world design challenges using commonly found around the home. Activities include:

  • Bye, Bye Bug: Help Kenji and Emi engineer a solution to relocate a bug found in their bedroom!
  • A Story to Remember: Use sequencing skills to think of a story and relate it to the story Nur, Fitri, and Fakhri are trying to remember.
  • I Spy Technologies: Make a trip to the store or laundromat more fun as you spot technologies all around you.
  • Technology Categories: Think of as many technologies as you can to solve different problems, like cooking food or making light.
  • Technology Deck: Use this deck of 52 technology cards to play seven different games. Use the printable version for a true card game experience or download the mobile version for your cell phone or tablet.

Families and educators can also organize a STEM Event at school or in a community space for learners and their families to work on engineering challenges in a group setting.

Leventhal Map & Education Center: Online resources for STEM learning

Resources

The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center in Boston has online Teach It Yourself resources, programs, and activities for teachers to use in helping students explore various aspects of maps and mapping — such as art, history, politics, and STEM. The curricula and materials are also suitable for use at home. Here are some STEM-related resources, arranged by grade:

MIT Edgerton Center: “Do-It-Yourself” STEM Project Guides

Resources

A reminder… MIT’s Edgerton Center offers “do-it-yourself” STEM instructional guides for teachers and parents to use for STEM projects, available for free use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  Projects are available in these areas:

  • Amplifier with Piezo Pickup
  • Arduino Garden
  • Arduino Particle Meter
  • Copper Pipe Glockenspiel
  • Kinetic Sculpture
  • Light-Up Tiles

Newton Free Library lends STEAM-to-Go Kits and STEM tools

Resources

The Newton Free Library’s Library of Things has a several STEAM-themed educational kits to loan:

  • All About Magnets
  • Construction & Building
  • Electronics, Coding & Bots
  • Everyday Science
  • Explore Circuits
  • Gadgets, Gizmos & Gears
  • Green Energy
  • Machines & Contraptions
  • Robotics & Coding (Grades PK-3)
  • Rocks & Fossils (Grades 4+)
  • Sounds, Music & Band (Grades PK-3)
  • Trucks & Tools (Grades PK-3)

..as well as these STEM tools:

  • Arduino Kit (Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit)
  • Electronics Toolkit (Ifixit Essential ToolKit)
  • Graphing Calculator (Texas Instruments TI-84 or TI-83 Plus)

STEM Podcasts on HMSC Connects!

Resources

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture produces the HMSC Connects! podcast, available at that site, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. The series contains these STEM-related episodes:

  • Forgotten Scientific Histories of Many Mexicos
  • A Lifetime of Natural History
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • Visualizing Science From Black Holes to the Future
  • Exploring Animal Behavior through Storytelling
  • Narcissism, Freud, & the Future of Psychotherapy
  • Unraveling the Mysteries of Planet Formation
  • Lizards, Snakes, and Frogs…Oh Yeah!
  • A Fascinating World of Viruses
  • Unlocking the Secrets of Regeneration
  • Challenge & Change for Women of Color in Science
  • Historic Challenges for Harvard Women of Science
  • Navigating by Nature
  • What Can Sharks Teach Us?
  • Uncovering Earthquakes
  • Pondering Distant Suns
  • Diving Deep for Ocean’s Week
  • Instruments of Technology & Science

MIT Edgerton Center: “Do-It-Yourself” STEM Project Guides

Resources

MIT’s Edgerton Center offers “do-it-yourself” STEM instructional guides for teachers and parents to use for STEM projects, available for free use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  Projects are available in these areas:

  • Amplifier with Piezo Pickup
  • Arduino Garden
  • Arduino Particle Meter
  • Copper Pipe Glockenspiel
  • Kinetic Sculpture
  • Light-Up Tiles