Massachusetts ArcGIS Map Contest

Opportunities

Esri invites students in Grades 4-8 and Grades 9-12 to question, explore, and analyze data for a situation in Massachusettts and then share their results in a Story Map to be submitted to the Massachusetts ArcGIS Map Contest. Schools or youth organizations can register for an ArcGIS bundle that includes an account needed for submitting student entries. Register by April 29 and submit up to 5 maps per school by May 3. The top 5 maps from the Massachusetts competition will move on to the national competition. Email Ann Witzig at aswitzig@gmail.com for more information.

LigerBots Host FIRST LEGO League Eastern Massachusetts Championship

Accomplishments

Yesterday the Newton LigerBots high-school robotics team hosted the Eastern Massachusetts FIRST Lego League (FLL) Championship featuring 48 FLL teams that qualified for the event from across eastern Massachusetts, including three Newton-based teams:  the Day Dragons, the Roaming Rovers, and the Hawks. In addition to competing in LEGO robot matches, the teams presented their projects on this year’s outer-space theme, Into Orbit. The Day Dragons won the Inspiration Award and the Roaming Rovers won the Teamwork Award. This was a great showing for Newton team in a very competitive event. The event also featured 10 FLL Jr. teams presenting their projects on this year’s FLL Jr. outer-space based theme, Mission Moon.

Accompanying the tournament was a maker fair featuring hands-on activities from the Brandeis Maker Lab, Students for a Greener World, Newton Free Library, Empow Studios, Hatch, Johnson String Instruments, Kevin Osborn, the Massachusetts National Guard, and Code Ninjas, as well as LigerBots STEAM activities: 3D printing, button making, paper airplanes, origami, slime, brush bots, PB&J Robot, and binary beads. About 70 Newton Girl Scouts attended the maker fair, which served as their 2018 STEAM Workshop. The Girl Scouts earned their STEAM patch by participating in activities sponsored by the Ligerbots and other exhibitors. See more photos here.

10% Off Unruly Splats!

Opportunities

Unruly Splats! are programmable floor tiles for kids to start playing games pre-loaded onto a tablet (not included) and progress into coding their own active games. They were created by a Boston-based start-up and are now available with free shipping and a 10% discount when you use the code Email10. The Unruly team says, “We are not interested in putting another boring and fragile science kit out on the market or in providing kids with a frivolous toy.”

MSEN: STEM Learning in Out-of-School Time, Jan. 23

Events

The quarterly meeting of the MetroWest STEM Education Network will feature a talk, STEM Learning in Out-of-School Time, by Georgia Hall, Ph.D., Director and Senior Research Scientist at National Institute on Out-of-School Time and Managing Editor of Afterschool Matters. It will be held on January 23, 8:15-10:30AM, at Wellesley College (College Club, 2nd floor, 727 Washington Street, Wellesley). Registration is free.

Newton Schools Foundation Annual Appeal Funds STEM Programs

Opportunities

You can donate to the Newton Schools Foundation Annual Appeal to support these STEM initiatives in the Newton Public Schools:

The Calculus Project aims to narrow the achievement gap in mathematics and increase the number of African American, Hispanic, and low-income students who complete calculus in high school. Rising seventh and eighth graders participate in small-group intensive summer instruction in mathematics and related workshops to gain academic skills and confidence, followed by after-school tutoring during the school year.

The DaVinci Program Newton South HS is a project-based collaborative approach to learning science, technology, engineering, arts and math.  Students build skills in experimentation, analytical problem solving, collaboration, presentation, communication, and artistic representation through authentic and student-driven learning.