Newton’s Summer Environmental Science Program, Grades 7-10

Summer

Newton’s Envi Sci Program is a summer outdoor and educational program, July 5 – August 4, for students entering Grades 7 through 10, under the auspices of Newton Parks, Recreation and Culture and located at Bowen Elementary School.  Students have fun enjoying the wilderness while learning about environmental science.  Highlights include hikes to Blue Hills and Mount Monadnock, bicycle trips, a 12-mile canoe trip on the Charles River, an expedition through the salt marshes of the North shore, and a three-day backpacking trip up Mount Washington. Students also conduct an environmental cleanup service project and learn about the environment through science workshops on geology, botany, ecology, water cycle, pollution issues, and conservation.  The cost is $2195 for Newton residents ($2245 for non-residents), with need-based financial aid available. Registration, payment, and other required forms are here. For more information, contact David Backer at 617-447-9317 or contact@newtonenvisci.org.

Tufts Summer Programs for Elementary and Middle-School Students: Registration Opens Feb. 22

Summer

Tufts University, which offers a wide range of pre-college summer courses for high-school students, will collaborate with Tuft’s Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) to offer in-person summer engineering design workshops for students entering Grades 1-8. Each program will be for one week, Monday-Friday, 9AM-3PM. Programs include:

Grades 1-3

  • Robotics & Engineering
  • Pet Helpers Engineering
  • The Circus is Coming
  • Novel Engineering

Grades 4-8

  • Robotics for ALL – SPIKE Prime
  • Wizarding Engineering
  • Girls Engineering
  • Spy Games

The cost is $750 per week. Registration will open February 22. For more information email precollege@tufts.edu or call 617-627-2926.

FSU McAuliffe Center: Undiscovered Worlds — In-Person or Online, Feb. 25

Events, Virtual/Online

The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University will host the film Undiscovered Worlds, February 25, followed by a presentation and Q&A about NASA’s search for exoplanets. The presentation and Q&A will be with Katharine Hesse and Evan Tey from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Science Office at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.  You may to attend either:

  • In-person:  7PM for the film (recommended for ages 12+) followed by the presentation and Q&A at 7:30PM, $5 per person. Register here.
  • On-line:  7:30PM presentation and Q&A, free.  Register here.

Grades 7-8: Register by Mar. 1 for Virtual MIT Spark, Mar. 12-13

Events, Virtual/Online

This year MIT’s Spark enrichment program for Grades 7-8 will be run virtually March 12 (9AM-6PM EST!) and March 13 (10AM-6PM EDT!). MIT students run Spark and teach its courses. The cost is $40 per student regardless of the number of courses taken, and there is generous, need-based financial aid available. Register by March 1 with your course choices to be included in the lottery for course placements. To maximize the number of time blocks in which you have classes, for each time block you should rank at least 3 classes and star at least 6 classes. After the lottery, there will be first-come/first-served registration for remaining spots. For more information, email spark@mit.edu. Among the 71 classes available are these STEM-related ones:

  • Intro to Javascript (Beginners)
  • Inside Java
  • Let’s make a discord bot!
  • How to make an impact in your community using programming and design
  • PicoPlay Workshop: Program a Mobile Device!
  • Making Your Own Water Filters
  • Geometry and Beauty of Soap Bubbles
  • Learn Rocket Science With MIT Rocket Team!
  • How to be an Astronaut
  • How to Build a Solar Car
  • How to build a spacecraft
  • Help Solve Climate Change!
  • Algorithmic Justice through Media Literacy Education
  • Digital humanities: what’s that all about?
  • pRoPoSiTiOnAL LoGiC
  • Information and the Redundancy of English
  • A History of Number Systems
  • Turning up the Heat: A Crash Course in Heat Transfer
  • CRISPR: The Molecular Scissors
  • Microbiome 101: What’s in your poop?
  • Fun with Polymers!
  • Wet lab: extracting strawberry DNA
  • Coastal Ecology
  • Ice Cream and Other Cold Things: Fun with Liquid Nitrogen
  • How do we fight against COVID?
  • FRUIT SNACKS!!!! with a side of some Biology
  • Optics for Aerospace
  • How to find Exoplanets
  • The Ballad of You and Your Brain
  • What is Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
  • Ionizing Radiation: From Hot Rocks to Fusion Plasmas
  • Nucleic Acids: The Symphony of Life
  • Fun with Immunology
  • Is life about to get CRISPER?: learn the basics of genome editing!
  • A not-so-brief History of Particle Accelerators
  • sticky situations
  • Humans working on the Moon: training and guidelines
  • Human Identification through DNA Typing

N. E. Sci-Tech Rocketry Club Starts Mar. 20; First Launch May 28

Events, Opportunities

The Rocketry Club of the New England Sci-Tech (NEST) STEM education center (16 Tech Circle, off Route 9 in Natick) will meet on Sundays, 2PM-4PM starting on March 20, as well as some Fridays, 6:30PM-8:30PM. It’s open to adults and children ages 13+ (parents of registered children may participate for free). Meetings are for club administration, guest speakers and the designing and building of rockets in preparation for five rocket launch events (320 School Street in Acton) between May and September (first event: May 28, 10AM-4PM).