Science Pickle offers a free game to help you hone your skills in questioning and finding patterns in numbers (in series, between pairs, and among triplets). John Pickle asks that anyone attaining Expert level with three or fewer misses should email him a screenshot at picklejohnmr@gmail.com. His website is chock full of information and challenges in questioning, observing, learning, earth systems, and software.
The Knowledge Society Offers Remote Learning Materials
The Knowledge Society, with offices in Cambridge and several other cities, is a 10-month accelerator program for curious and ambitious teens to learn how to use emerging technologies to solve big problems. It’s now offering these online resources for teens:
- Online sessions each week (sign up here), including access to recordings of previous sessions: Cellular agriculture, Brain-computer interfaces, Human longevity, Gene editing, and Artificial intelligence.
- Free online learning modules brain-computer interfaces, space technologies, and viruses (sign up here).
WGBH Distance Learning Resources: Broadcast and Streaming
The WGBH Distance Learning Center is broadcasting educational programming in science and social studies, noon to 5PM daily for Grades 6-12 on WGBH WORLD (Comcast 956, FiOS 473, RCN 94, Cox 807, Charter 181) and WGBY WORLD (over-the-air 57.2, Comcast 209, Spectrum 181 and 1275).
In addition, it offers on-demand streaming of education programs for Grades Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
Empow Studios Offers Parents Uninterrupted Time ;-)
Empow Studios is offering working parents 2-4 hours of uninterrupted time each weekday through its new virtual online STEM classes for kids to learn coding, digital arts, and design in small classes with live instructors. Classes are organized by grade level and offered several times a day, with emphasis ranging from exploring a wide range of interests to focusing on one, with the option to receive maximum 1:1 support.
Neo.Life: Online Conversation About Engineering Biology, Apr. 9
On April 9, 7-9PM, Manifest Boston will live-stream a conversation about engineering biology, highlighting a new book, Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species. Register here. The conversation will be in Long Conversation format (“a daisy chain of timed but spontaneous 2-person dialogues with no slides and no moderator”) featuring:
- Christina Agapakis — Synthetic biologist, artist, creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks
- Siranush Babakhanova — Transhumanist, founder of the MIT student group Xapiens
- Brian Bergstein — Deputy opinion editor, Boston Globe and coeditor of Neo.Life
- George Church — Harvard professor of health sciences and technology
- Juan Enriquez — Futurist, author, managing director of Excel Venture Management
- Steve Ramirez — Neuroscientist, professor at Boston University
- Jason Kelly — President of Ginkgo Bioworks
- Jen Reddy — Wired Ventures Co-Founder; NEO.LIFE Founder and CEO
Tumblehome: Free STEM Books If You Review Them
Tumblehome Books, a non-profit STEM book publishing company in greater Boston, is offering a series of free STEM books (shipping included) in its Read-Review-Repeat program. Select a book from their list, read it, review it on Amazon (good, bad, or indifferent), and then repeat with another book on the list. Here are some of the books:
- Sometimes We Do by Omo Moses
- I Just Keep Wondering by Larry Scheckel
- Engineering Bridges by Pendred Noyce
- ResQ and the Baby Orangutan by Eva Pell
- Remarkable Minds by Pendred Noyce
- Inventors, Makers, Barrier Breakers by Pendred Noyce
- Microplastics and Me by Anna Du
Christa McAuliffe Center Offers Online Learning Resources
The Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University offers teachers and caregivers these STEM resources for Grades PreK-12:
- ISS Image of the Week from the International Space Station
- DIY Universe to develop an understanding of how the universe works
- STEM At Home: A curated collection of online learning resources
- Sustainable Space, Sustainable Earth: Videos of speaker presentations and panel discussions from the Moon Landing in Context symposium
- Smithsonian Distance Learning Resources
Boston Tech Mom Catalogs Instructor-Led Online STEM Courses
Boston Tech Mom has gathered information about several instructor-led online STEM courses.
STEM Offerings Moving Rapidly to Online, In-Home Learning
Providers of STEM education and enrichment have moved rapidly to create online versions of their in-person programs for use during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- The Innovation Institute has moved all of its spring-term courses online. Classes are starting just now, and some spaces are still available. An initial review from a parent of Grades K and 2 said her kids’ first classes were “a smashing success.” Additional courses will be added soon for Grades 8-12.
- Mad Science offers its Loop Lab mail-order science curriculum (with a free lab coat if you use code LABCOAT19). It’s also offering daily 60-minute live online classroom sessions, available for single sessions or by the week.
- Code Ninjas has created (and will be updating) a list of at-home STEM activity resources and is offering an at-home Hack-a-thon, tutorial videos, and daily LIVE YouTube videos. Details here.
- Empow Studios is offering live, virtual online classes in coding, robotics, film and animation, Minecraft, and engineering.
- The John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club has moved its Curiosity Club, Keystone Club, and Torch club meetings online and will host coding and other STEM activities for elementary and middle school kids via MyFuture.net.
- Within the next week, the Russian School of Math will have temporarily moved all of its in-person classes online, simulating in-person classes as much as possible and drawing on its seven years of experience in online learning.
- CSRecitations has moved all of its in-person classes online, including a new summer online course in Java for Grades 8+. Class sizes are limited to five students.
More Resources for At-Home STEM Education
In addition to last week’s post, Online Resources for STEM-Related Exploration at Home, here are some more:
- Boston Tech Mom has published an extensive list of online learning activities for kids.
- The Newton Free Library has compiled a list of online resources including this extensive list of STEM resources.
- PBS Kids has started a free weekday newsletter for parents to share activities and tips for keeping kids playing and learning at home.
- The Winchester HS STEM Education Club has created a website of more than 30 (and growing) at-home, hands-on STEAM activities for elementary students based on curricula the club originally developed for classrooms. Each lesson has an age range, description, and learning objective and includes materials, worksheets, activities, and relevant website links. The club was formed in 2018 by Winchester HS girls and their district STEM coordinator. The curricula are developed based on interviews of HS students about what they found most memorable, effective, and entertaining from their own elementary education.
- Tufts CEEO Design and Engineering Workshops is posting design challenges on its Facebook page.
- SciFun: Home Experiments compiled by a University of Wisconsin professor.