The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host a free evening of stargazing and observation on February 24, 6PM-7:30PM (weather permitting), in FSU’s O’Connor parking lot by Maynard Road in Framingham. For more information, email cmc@framingham.edu.
Book a tour of Broad’s new museum, Broad Discovery Center
The Broad Institute now invites the public to book tours of its new museum, the Broad Discovery Center (415 Main Street, Cambridge), for groups of 10 or more, using this calendar. In addition, the museum hosts drop-in tours for individuals and smaller groups at 11AM, Monday through Wednesday each week.
MITES: MIT Summer and Semester Programs for Grade 11, apply by Feb. 1
MIT’s MITES (MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science) offers two programs for current Grade 11 students:
- MITES Summer is a six-week (June 23-August 4) residential summer program.
- MITES Semester is a six-month immersive online experience in two phases: STEM Immersion (June-August, 25-30 hours per week) and College and Career Prep (August-December, 3-5 hours per week)
See the FAQs. Applications are due by February 1, and teachers’ recommendations are due by February 15.
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.
Mass. Science & Engineering Fair seeks Director of Development & Communications
The Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair (MSEF) has created a new position for a Director of Development & Communications. MSEF is open to considering candidates to fulfill part of these responsibilities.
Discovery Museum online speaker series: Teaching Today’s Kids To Spot Tomorrow’s Fake News, Feb. 9
[CORRECTED DATE:} On February 9, 7PM-8PM, the Discovery Museum‘s speaker series will present Dr. Susan Engel of the Psychology Department at Williams College speaking about Teaching Today’s Kids To Spot Tomorrow’s Fake News. It’s free with pre-registration, and an optional $5 donation is suggested. She notes that by starting early, giving children the intellectual tools to assess the credibility of information is neither as hard nor as amorphous as it might seem.
Northeastern Young Scholars Program: Summer STEM for Rising Seniors
Northeastern University’s Young Scholars Program will run June 26-August 3, 8:30AM-4:30PM, Mondays through Thursdays. It’s for Massachusetts high-school rising seniors, with priority given to students with low access to similar programs and live within commuting distance of Northeastern. It offers selected students laboratory research experience, career exploration and counseling, and an introduction to college life. Applications (including short essay questions and teacher recommendations) are due March 15. For more information, email the Director for the Center for STEM Education, Claire Duggan, the 2021 YSP Coordinator, Nicolas Fuchs, or stem@northeastern.edu.
Broad Discovery Series: Biomedical science and machine learning: A two-way street, Feb. 7
The next presentation in Broad Institute’s Broad Discovery Series of free, public lectures (formerly Science for All Seasons) will be on February 7, 6PM-7PM: Biomedical science and machine learning: A two-way street. Broad Core Institute Member Caroline Uhler will explain how these two fields are coming together and how today’s biological questions are motivating new developments in machine learning to help find answers. Register to attend either online or in-person (415 Main Street, Cambridge).
NSHS students hold MathCounts Competition for Oak Hill
On Tuesday, January 10, a group of Newton South HS students organized the School MathCounts Competition at Oak Hill Middle School. This annual competition introduces middle-school students to mathematics competitions in a friendly and low-key way. The competition was well attended, with lots of enthusiasm among participants and organizers.
The NSHS students ran the competition were all alumni of both MathCounts and Oak Hill. They did live grading and presented certificates and small prizes to the top scorers: Ryder, Jason, Christian, Joshua, Hailey, Natalie, Claire, Jayden, Kenneth, Adi, Kinaan, and Deesha.
Many of these high-school students — Elena, Steven, Isaac, Alexander, Jared, Noah and Dhruv –have been giving back to their community by teaching extracurricular math at Oak Hill since their freshman year.
This year the Chapter MathCounts competitions are held in-person for the first time since 2020. On February 4, twelve members of the Oak Hill Mathcounts Club will participate in the MetroNorth chapter competition. Last year, the Oak Hill team placed third in the MetroNorth competition and sixth in the statewide MathCounts competition.