US Rocket Club

Another student club offering this year... Rocketry!  Students meet in room 136 Thursday at X Block. Here is an example of the type of competition the club might enter this year...

Summer STEM Opportunities for Upper School Girls

CODEBREAKERS

Boston University is pleased to host CODEBREAKERS, a four-week summer program providing an introduction to the fundamentals of cyber security, a field that combines the studies of computer science, forensics, law, and computer programming to protect networks, computers, programs, and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access.

Students will participate in a four-week session of lectures, hands-on training, and day trips to technology companies to receive an immersive and supportive introduction to the interdisciplinary field of cyber security. CODEBREAKERS provides a unique opportunity for high school students to be introduced to career opportunities in the exciting field of cyber security, as well as to be mentored by women who are program coordinators or invited guest speakers.

The program will run from July 10th through August 4th Monday-Friday from 9:00-3:00 pm. Young women currently in 9th or 10th grade who live within daily commuting distance to Boston are eligible to apply. Students do not need any background or experience in cyber security or computer programming is needed in order to apply, only their interest and enthusiasm.

For more information and to apply: go to: www.bu.edu/lernet/cyber


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SUMMER PATHWAYS

BU is pleased to host the Summer Pathways program July 7-14, 2017. In its eleventh year, Summer Pathways is an exciting seven-day, residential program for high school girls entering their junior or senior year in September 2017. The program targets girls from Boston area high schools who show promise and/or interest in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). Tuition is $675 and includes room, board, all travel and activities, and an overnight at Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. Scholarships of up to $575 are available to students with demonstrated financial need.

Over the course of the week, participants in Summer Pathways have the opportunity to gain first hand knowledge of a wide range of careers in STEM disciplines, and also to interact with successful women at all levels of science and engineering -- undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and members of industry.

Participants live in a BU dormitory along with their peers, and during this week, engage in many hands-on science activities, visit laboratories and a local industry, hear from a career panel, and learn about the college admissions process. On Thompson Island, they will develop communication skills and experience a process of self-discovery through team building exercises.


For more information about the program and to apply, go to: www.bu.edu/lernet/spathways

Student Ingenuity on Display at Upper School STEM Fair

When Lily Druker '18 and Ali Plump '18 assumed leadership roles in the Upper School GAINS club (Girls Advancing in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) they knew they would be overseeing a fascinating variety of innovative ideas. Impressed with the energy and commitment they witnessed, the two decided that the entire school needed to get involved.

"We just wanted to come up a fun way to share all of these great student ideas with the community, but we didn't want to make it a stressful thing," says Plump. "So we came up with an optional fair that anyone could get involved with and bring their projects or ideas to the table."

The result? Nearly 40 students volunteered to present. And on a Friday afternoon in later winter the Upper School community room was packed with students and faculty alike, eagerly checking out the myriad concepts on display.

Among the many exhibitions were homemade Van der Graaf generators (capable of creating a visible electrical charge), cathode ray tubes, models of energy efficient smart homes, space telescopes, chemically altered "healthy" caramel, software designed to cater course curriculums to specific student learning styles, and many more interesting projects.

Click here for a gallery of images from the STEM fair.

US Math & Physics Opportunities

On 9/29/2016, Harvard will hold a placement exam for the Boston Physics Circle. All high school students from Massachusetts are eligible to participate. A group of 50 high school students will be selected, and continuously instructed throughout the year, preparing them for the first screening exam for the US Physics Olympiad team, known as the "F=ma" exam, to be held in January 2017. The mentoring will be done by undergraduate and graduate students, primarily from Harvard, starting in October and continuing through January. For more info visit http://amir.seas.harvard.edu/boston-physics-circle

Upper School also has a math team that any students can join. These "mathletes" prep and competed in the following competitions. Contact Mr. Rollinson for more information. (Note: you do not have to be a member of the after-school math team in order to compete for BB&N at any of these events.)

• NEML (New England Math League) - monthly 30-minute contests offered during X-blocks (middle of Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar).
• Mandelbrot Competition - monthly 40-minute contest offered during X-blocks (early Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar). 
• AMC 10/12 (American Mathematics Competition) - annual 70-min contest consisting of 25 multiple choice questions offered twice in February. 
• Massachusetts Mathematics Olympiad Competition - late October - 90 minute multiple choice competition.

LS AfterSchool Engineering Class

One of the new offerings in the AfterSchool Programs this year is a "STEAM Team" class taking place Tuesday afternoons in our new maker-space. This after school class is exploring a variety of engineering challenges and principles. "STEAM" classes give students experience with challenges that integrate disciplines of Science, Tech, Engineering, Art, & Math. To date, students have explored expanding spheres, and strategies of building and launching a hand-held catapult.

An upcoming unit will focus on robotic bugs constructed with vibration motors and button batteries.

US Robotics Team Wants You!

Do you like problem-solving or building cool stuff?  If you answered "yes" to either of the above, you should consider joining the Robotics Team!!  No prior experience is necessary!  The team meets every day after school in the fall to build a robot that will compete in the VEX robotics competition. If you want to learn more about VEX, check out this year's challenge:

We have an Instagram where you can see what the robots we build are like and what we do on the team! Check it out @bbn_robotics https://www.instagram.com/bbn_robotics/. Here's a photo of last year's team:

US Advancing Girls in STEM

This year, thanks to Dr. Long, BB&N's upper school has joined the GAINS network as a member school. GAINS is Girls Advancing In STEM, whose mission is to promote the inclusion of young women in STEM fields, including Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math, (which also incldues computer science, astronomy, robotics, health and medicine etc.) This provides young women at BB&N the opportunity to become part of this nationwide network and participate in their online platform, connecting us with other students as well as female mentors who have chosen to pursue STEM careers. At BB&N, this will be a new club/interest group that will meet every other week during Tuesday X block. 

At our meetings, we will get together, discuss topics related to STEM careers and host guest speakers, visit outside labs and develop a project of our own that we will do. Dr. Long will be recruiting both alumni and local mentors to join the network on behalf of BB&N and help students make connections with them for advice and the chance to get to know someone who has chosen a career in a STEM field. Contact Dr. Long for more info!

Here is a video from the GAINS website:

Knightly News YouTube Channel

Upper School students publish periodic videos to YouTube highlighting recent events. Check out their YouTube channel, and here is one example:

Middle School Science Club Builds Sleds

3/2/15

SET in the City!

The seventh annual SET in the City- A Day of Career Exploration in Science, Engineering & Technology for High School Girls will take place on *Saturday, March 28th, 2015*. Students begin the day at Boston University, travel to area venues including Harvard, Emmanuel/Merck, Simmons, Northeastern, and Biogen for lunch and laboratory activities, and end the day with a keynote and college student panel at Google Cambridge.

The program will begin at 9:00 am and conclude at 5:00 pm. Participating students will take part in hands-on activities, hear from and interact with students and professionals in SET fields, learn about cutting edge research that will change the world, and find out how to prepare for careers in Science, Engineering, and Technology. Interested students may find out more information and pre-register for the event online at http://www.bostongirlsstem.org/setinthecity/.

 The registration fee is $20.00 which includes lunch and all transportation. Students who are eligible for a free lunch program may attend for a reduced fee of $5.00. Please note, we are not able to host large groups from any one school and reserve the right to limit registration to ten students per school. This event is sponsored by the Boston Area Girls STEM Collaborative, which includes representatives from the following organizations and institutions: Boston University, Emmanuel College, Harvard University, M.I.T., Northeastern University, Science Club for Girls, Simmons College, UMass Boston, and WGBH.

Family Science Saturday Is a Maker Extravaganza!

[Reposted from http://www.bbns.org/page.cfm?p=782&newsid=214]

The winter Family Science Saturday held last week centered around inventing and tinkering in order to solve problems, learn how things work, and create.

Beginners through sixth grade students were able to visit seven stations and try various challenges. The stations were staffed by the Lower School science and technology department, as well as by four Upper School students – Sophia Scanlan '18, Tali Sorets '16, Claudia Inglessis '18, and Ethan O’Reilly '16. Parents were asked to let their children take the lead, rather than jumping in to make the project work or work better.

The Lower School students had a chance to useMakeyMakeys to type by touching fruits and vegetables or play a keyboard by touching play dough. They also created structures with marshmallows and spaghetti, and one structure was even strong enough to support a block! Other great activities included building cardboard structures, electric greeting cards, wind-up cars, and bristle bots.

Robotics Team wraps up their competition

Congrats to the Upper School Robotics Team for their outstanding finish at BB&N’s first VEX robotics competition! The team competed on Saturday, November 22 at North Andover High School, coming in fourth place out of 22 teams in the qualifying rounds. The day ended with a paired alliance playoff round, and our team ultimately earned runner-up status! For a first year team, this is truly an outstanding finish! Congrats to Mike B for all of his hard work, and to students Kofi, Sam, Jack, Vishnu, and Josh!
-Katrina Fuller