Cambridge Science Fest 2015: 10 days of fun for everyone!

| Aimee Sprung

Cambridge-Science-Festival-feature

The 9th annual Cambridge Science Festival kicks off next Friday, April 17 through April 25 with an exciting series of events sure to please everyone. The annual event is the first of its kind in the United States, showcasing a wide-range of STEAM-related activities—Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and/or Math. The CSF partners with local educational institutions, including Harvard University, the Museum of Science, and the City of Cambridge to foster curiosity and creativity among students, the science community and the general public.

To gear up the festival, we asked some members of the Kendall Square Association which events they were most looking forward to. Here are their picks!

01

Karen Kerr, Bright Horizons at One Kendall Square (@BrightHorizons) 

Science Magic with Bright Horizons at Davis Square 

Tuesday, April 21

An afternoon of “Science Magic” and a chance to create lava lamps! Visit to learn how ice cubes and how our fingers can easily perform magic tricks! Children will also experiment with mixing different materials and solutions found at home, predict outcomes and finish by creating a lava lamp to take home.

Become an Engineering with Bright Horizons at University Park

Wednesday, April 22

Join us for a morning filled with engineering fun! We will be constructing bridges and boats with various materials and testing how much weight each structure can hold. We’ll use photos of well-known boats and bridges here in the Boston area and other well-known structures to help inspire our creations!

special-art

Sarah Gallop, Co-Director, Government and Community Relations at MIT (@SarahEGallop)

Tuesday, April 21
For over 40 years, Volpe, the National Transportation Systems Center has helped the transportation community navigate its most challenging problems. Come and hear a series of short, live talks direct from Volpe team members working on emerging transportation issues such as maritime security, non-motorized transportation, planning for climate change, and advancing the flow of aviation traffic. The talks will conclude with a tour of the Volpe Simulators (how to drive a train, fly a plane, navigate an airfield) showcasing how Volpe is advancing transportation innovation for the public good. Limited to 40 participants; teens and adults only.

Pardis Saffari, Project Planner, City of Cambridge (@saffarip)
Saturday, April 18
If you think you know what the words “solid” and “liquid” mean, think again. The two states are often much closer than you think, and nowhere more so than in the kitchen. Come explore fluids that don’t like to flow, solids with serious surface tension, and other materials that sit precariously on the border between these two fundamental states of matter. A materials scientist and a chef are teaming up to bring you a range of tasty, edible demos that double as cooking lessons!

Broad Institute Auditorium (@broadinstitute)

Science Trivia Challenge

Wednesday, April 22

Please join us for a lively team trivia quiz that will test your knowledge of science from a variety of fields ranging from biology, chemistry, and physics to ecology and the history of science. Enter a team to compete on stage, or come and participate as an audience member and support your favorite team. Winning teams will enjoy a meal with one of MIT’s own Nobel Laureates! Contestants are restricted to Middle and High School students. Registration is required only for participating youth teams. To learn more or to register your team, please visit web.mit.edu/trivia/.

Exploring Neurobiology and Music

Friday, April 24

The Harvard Museums of Science and Culture present a special evening of music and science featuring Project LENS, a performance collaborative that seeks to reveal connections between music and a wide variety of topics as eclectic as evolution, 3D printing, humor, law, and birdsong. Join us as members of Project LENS, Ariel Mitnick, Rainer Crosett, and Alan Toda-Ambaras, explore the field of neurobiology with Dr. David Silbersweig, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Institute for the Neurosciences at Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals. Together they will present a TalkThread that reveals an idea, theory, or story; and a MusicThread spun of selections from the classical repertoire.

A Little Light Music: Songs of Electromagnetic Radiation

Saturday, April 25

A Little Light Music is a program of songs about light and the electromagnetic spectrum, sung by a multigenerational chorus, ages five to grandparent. It is accompanied by a slideshow of imaginative children’s artwork and the lyrics. The music is by several composers in a variety of styles. The program includes songs about wavelengths seen by various animals, bioluminescence, lasers, and much more. The songs are informative, poetic, and entertaining. This is a performance both kids and adults will enjoy!

 

Our Top Picks:

SoundScience Fun! Museum of Science, Science Live! Stage

Friday, April 17

SoundScience Fun! is an interactive sing along performance designed to explore the science of sound through the magic of music. Together we sing about strings, have a percussion discussion, ride a sound wave, and have fun! The performance invites audience participation in multiple ways: audience members are invited to sing along and “move-along” to learn more about how science is connected to our everyday lives.

Make to Move Workshop

Friday, April 24

Tour MIT Museum’s Gestural Engineering exhibition and find your inner engineer + artist. Participants will learn about elements of motion (gears, pulleys, linkages, and more) and combine them to produce a kinetic sculpture worthy of sharing with their peers.

Microsoft is very proud to be hosting the KSA Third Thursday as a Cambridge Science Festival Kick-off Party on Thursday, April 16, 2015.  Register here.

For more information, visit cambridgesciencefestival.org or follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,