Many New England colleges are in the process of releasing SPLASH spring programs dates and times. SPLASH is a one day or weekend event, held on college campuses across the country, with the purpose of proving a fun opportunity to excite and engage middle and high school students in learning process. Classes, designed and taught by college student volunteers, are on anything and everything. Programs are offered free, low cost with financial aid available, or with a suggested donation so that cost is not a barrier for any student. Learning Unlimited (LearningU) is the non-profit organization, founded in 2007, which supports these self-sustaining student groups to provide learning opportunities to school students. Educational programs offered throughout the country are listed on their website at www.learningu.org. STEM Advocates offered a quick list to many of the SPLASH programs available in New England with their dates, times and costs at under the Student section of mySTEMresource.com. We have attended many, many SPLASH programs over the last couple of years and are very grateful for the wonderful opportunities provided. My son has had the opportunity to have exposure to many topics he may have not otherwise had the opportunity to learn about. If you're heading to this spring's New England SPLASH programs we hope see you there! The weekend of March 4 & 5, 2017, motivated high school students will be heading to the MIT Campus to attend Blueprint, a learnathon and hackathon event. The program is free, you are welcome to attend one or both days. The learnathon is held on Saturday where you can attend hand-on programming workshops taught by MIT students. On Sunday, the hackathon is held, this is where you work as part of a team to build a project from scratch. Don't worry if you don't have a team, there will be a team formation session at the beginning of Blueprint to help you. Hurry, applications are open until Wednesday, February 1, 2017!
oLast night, my 10 year old and I got our first introduction to 3D printing using his new 3Doodler Pen Set. He is hooked! He was thrilled with the helicopter he made using the template that was provided in the project book. He now wants to make more and sell them at school, maybe I'll have a little entrepreneur on my hands!
The pen is super easy to use. To my delight, it actually came charged so we were able use it right away. He just had to press the orange button on the pen to turn it on and then insert a plastic strand to start printing. Neither the pen or the plastic got too hot to the touch and we were able to handle the objects right away. I would recommend this product to those who enjoy the blend of art and technology. I know it's going to be well used in our house. I'll be ordering some plastic refills soon! Boston University (BU) is one of the many New England Colleges that offer an opportunity to have a summer pre-college experience. High school students have the chance to live on campus, learn, meet new friends and experience college life. BU offers five different opportunities for students from entering freshmen to rising seniors. Two of the programs, High School Honors and Research in Science and Engineering offer financial aid while the other three do not. High School Honors - Take undergraduate courses and earn up to 8 college credits. For rising seniors and exceptional rising juniors. 6 Weeks, July 2 - Aug 11, 2017. $50 application fee. Cost $8,518 for 8 credits. Financial Aid Available. ($50 application, $5,230 tuition, $470 service, $2,718 room, board & 19 meals/wk - an additional $200 lab fees may be applicable) Research In Science & Engineering (RISE) - Pursue scientific research in university laboratories. For rising seniors. 6 Weeks, July 2 - Aug 11, 2017. Non-credit. $50 application fee. Cost $7,538. Financial Aid Available. ($50 application, $4,300 tuition, $470 service, $2,718 room, board & 19 meals/wk) Academic Immersion - Focus intensively on psychology or medicine while living on a college campus. For rising juniors and seniors. 2 Weeks, Psychology: July 2 - July 21/Medicine: July 23 - Aug 11, 2017. Non-Credit. No financial aid available. $50 application fee. Cost $6,050 ($50 application, $6,000 tuition, room & board) Summer Challenge - Explore two subjects of your choice and experience college life. For rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. Two Weeks, Choice of 3 sessions: Session 1: Jun 18-30; Session 2: Jul 9-21; Session 3: Jul 23-Aug 4, 2017. Non-Credit. No financial aid available. $50 application fee. Cost $3,950 ($50 application, $3,900 tuition, room & board) Summer Preview - Delve into one subject of your choice and preview life at college. For entering freshmen and rising sophomores. One Week, July 23-July 28, 2017. Residential & Commuter Program options. Non-Credit. No financial aid available. $50 application fee. Cost $1,883 Residential/ $1,487 Day (Residential=$50 application, $1,380 tuition, $453 room & board; Commuter=$50 application, $1,380 tuition, $57 Lunch) It doesn't seem like much time goes by before I find another cool thing that MIT has to offer the community. Last night, I stumbled across the MIT App Inventor, which is free open source software. It is designed to encourage all people, especially young people, to become creators of technology through the use of drag and drop programming. The website offers a Getting Started Guide, Tutorials, curriculum and teaching resources for teachers, and active community forums. I watched the Ball Bounce Tutorial and created my first app! So, what are you waiting for? Why not get started today? Create something really cool and maybe you will be featured on the website's App of the Month! This is a true love story where the love continues to grow stronger. The story goes back to the beginning of time, or at least my time. In the 1960s, down the halls of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) campus there was a young woman that caught the fancy of a young man. My mother had been working as a secretary in the admissions office and my father also worked on campus. They fell in love and soon married and had two beautiful daughters.
Fast forward about 40 years to 2012, MIT came into our lives when my niece was accepted into their freshman class. This coincided with my oldest son reaching his middle school years. We learned about the SPARK program; this is where the love story really begins. SPARK is a program where middle school kids get to spend the weekend at the MIT campus taking classes on anything and everything. The kids that attend SPARK are made of the same cloth, they are excited to be there because they love being challenged and they love learning. After MIT SPARK came MIT Junction, which is a summer program for select, advanced, self-driven high school students held on the MIT campus for two weeks. Students submit a proposal for an independent study project and those whom are selected are invited to the MIT campus to carry out their project with the support of a knowledgeable student mentor. The students are also able to take college-level hands-on seminars on a variety of topics. My son was lucky enough to be able to participate in this opportunity in 2015. SCRATCH, is part of the curriculum in both my son’s schools, one in elementary and one in high school. It is a free programming language, developed at MIT, where students can build and share stories, games and animations. It can be used as an introduction to programming and logic and can be used at higher levels for more advanced projects. When students are in high school, they are able to attend SPLASH, which is held the weekend before Thanksgiving on the MIT Campus. The program is two days of classes on just about everything. Students, not parents, pick the classes that interest them such as Parody Song Writing, Knitting, Cyberespionage, and Introduction to Ancient Greek. The vibe of the campus is almost electric where you can feel the energy and creativity. It is an incubator of ideas. Oh, if you have a friend, or cousin in our case, that attends MIT stay in the dorms for the full college experience. There are many more reasons we love MIT, but those will be for another post…. I am very excited to report that our new website address is up and running. We wanted something that would be easy to remember. You can now find us at www.mySTEMresource.com !
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Debbi and I'm so glad you're here! As a mom of two boys I found it difficult to find resources on STEM programs for my kids. I spent hours researching which resulted in my kids having some amazing STEM opportunities. I want to share information with other families. I try to focus on free or low-cost events so that opportunities are available to children no matter their family's income level. Archives
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