2010 Festival Events Saturday, April 24 Check regularly for event updates

Sort today's events:

  • 10:00am - 5:00pm
    MIT Museum Free Day!
    MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
    Visit the MIT Museum for free! Discover high-tech artifacts, intriguing scientific instruments, historic photographs, amazing holograms, and even ingenious kinetic sculptures. Participate in Cambridge Science Festival hands-on activities throughout the day.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 10:00am - 3:30pm
    Firefly Day
    Museum of Science Exhibit Halls
    Learn more about everyone’s favorite insect. Firefly Day at the Museum includes children’s activities, talks by firefly researchers, firefly slide show and information on how to get involved in the Museum’s citizen science project, “Firefly Watch.”
    More details...
    Cost: Included with museum admission
  • 10:00am, 2:00pm - 10:45am, 2:45pm
    Family Program Conservation Clues!
    Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
    Why can't we touch the artifacts in the museum? Why can't we eat and drink in the museum? Why are some of the galleries so dark? Explore artifacts conservation science and the behind-the-scenes role of conservators. Handle and learn about conservation tools. Then join an educator and hunt throughout the museum to find evidence of conservation at work. Recommended for children ages 7-12 with an accompanying adult. Advanced registration required and space is limited. Call 617 495-2916
    More details...
    Cost: Free with museum admissions
  • 10:00am - 5:00pm
    Pollution, UV Damage, and You
    MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave.
    Join MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences and Harvard NIEHS Center of Environmental Health for their 4th Annual CSF Open House. Collect data on your own respiratory systems and look at the clinical signs of asthma. See the dust, mites, and particulates in the air around us. Learn how DNA can become damaged and may need to be repaired, and learn why teen skin cancer is on the rise. Understand DNA structure by using LEGO DNA materials. Additionally visitors will be able to use the unique APRIL® Age Progression Software to see a "stream of images" that depict how they will age based on lifestyle effects such as smoking, sun exposure, and obesity.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 10:00am - 4:00pm
    Live Science Presentations
    Museum of Science Exhibit Halls
    Take in the Museum of Science's live programs on such topics as live animals, optical illusions, and current science.
    More details...
    Cost: Included with museum admission
  • 10:00am - 5:00pm
    Design for the Ideal Polling Booth
    MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
    View work by Joseph Choma, a computation based researcher focused on emerging architectual design. Choma is a grad student in Design and Computation at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 10am - 5pm
    There's Gold In That Cell Phone!
    MIT Museum
    Ever wonder what metals are in your cell phone and where they come from? Or where they go when you’re done with the phone? Come take a phone apart, find out where the metals inside are mined, and discover the best way to get rid of electronics when you’re done with them.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 11:00am - 11:30am
    Nature Storytime
    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street
    Join us for readings of stories and poems designed to engage the next generation of explorers with themes related to the museum's galleries. For children 6 and under. Free with museum admission.
    More details...
    Cost: Free with museum admission
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Cambridge Public Schools STEM Showcase
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Discover the excitement about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Cambridge Rindge & Latin and the Rindge School of Technical Arts! Participate in a physics experiment testing your driving reaction times with Physics First students. Check your blood pressure with RSTA Health Assisting students. Take the Rubik's Cube Challenge with Cambridge Science Festival Teen Advisory Board members. Test a giant model of Newton's Cradle designed and built by Physics and Carpentry students. Enjoy a sneak preview of entries in the EDGE video contest. Learn about cutting edge research from CRLS interns from the Broad Institute, Draper Labs, and more.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Discover the Microwilderness of the Boston Harbor Islands
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Join us and discover the microwilderness of the Boston Harbor Islands! Harvard University and the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership have joined forces to document every living thing on the 34 islands that make up the Boston Harbor Islands national park area. To start, we are focusing on BUGS and many of their spineless relatives. So far, we have identified almost 1400 species of local insects and other invertebrates, and many of them are on display: pinned bugs, bugs in plastic cubes to try and identify (win prizes!), posters of bugs, a card game of bugs (Bug Off!), recordings of bugs, and best of all, 3-D bugs! Come learn about the biodiversity you can find in your own back yard.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    IBM @ Cambridge Science Festival Carnival
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Exploring computers: Hands on activity providing access to the inside of a Computer. See what makes a computer run, examine the parts and see how the components work together to make the computer work. Discover careers in Engineering and what Engineers do.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Explore the Universe with the WorldWide Telescope
    Carnival
    The Worldwide Telescope (WWT) transforms your computer into the world’s most powerful virtual telescope. This free visualization software from Microsoft Research allows anyone to forge their own path around the Universe, and to learn by taking guided tours created by professionals and astronomy aficionados alike. By bringing together imagery from the world's best ground and space-based telescopes, WWT creates a direct connection between users of any background to the wonders of the cosmos. Learn more about WWT, its brand new Ambassadors program, and all of the opportunities available to explore the Universe through hands-on demos at the WWT booth.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Camp Kaleidoscope
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come have crazy science fun with Camp Kaleidoscope, is an alternative camp for children where they can explore the arts and sciences in a hands on, non coercive environment.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Greening Your Future with BLS Youth CAN (Climate Action Network)
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    What's on your roof? Check out Boston Latin School's Sustainable Roofscape Learning Lab and find out how your school or company can take action now about climate change. Learn how the Fenway Green Roof Student Coalition, a project of the BLS Youth CAN, provides a model for community action and collaboration in combating climate change and in educating for sustainability. Get information you can use today to start your own Youth CAN chapter.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Exploring Robotics Engineering
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Kids, 7-18 years old, learn about the exciting field of robotics engineering by exploring and doing. Kids collaborate in teams to perform aspects of robotics engineering. Following a basic "System Engineering Process," younger kids role-play to program and act as robots, while older kids build or program Lego robots.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    TTT Mentor Program
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Roll up your sleeves and check out what's under the microscope with the TTT Mentor Program! 
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Life is a Puzzle. Solve it With Numbers.
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    See how much math we all use while cooking, shopping, playing, travelling or organizing our home. Math is our friend, our tool and our weapon. Participate in our Family Puzzle Marathon to earn puzzle points and get prizes. Presented by www.TheMathMom.com and www.IamAPuzzle.com
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Science Made Fun!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Hands on science activities geared towards elementary age school children. Discover chromatography, the power of light and more!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    MIT Educational Studies Program Droplets
    MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave.
    Come participate in the best of MIT Splash! The MIT Educational Studies Program will run a series of three one-hour classes on quirky science topics, from geology to computers, drawn from the offerings of the annual Fall Splash event. For ages 14-18. Free preregistration required.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00
    Fun with food!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Fun, hands-on activity focused on healthy food and/or sustainable agriculture.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Look Who's Squawking, too?
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Can you tell the chirp of a chickadee from the chirp of a cricket? Or the buzz of a bee from the buzz of a blackbird? Stop by and give it a try ... using your ears and your eyes! Try your own imitation. We'll use a sonogram to actually SEE how close you get. Then we'll talk about how and why animals make similar sounds. And how the sounds they make fit the places they live and the things they like to do!
    More details...
    Cost: NONE
  • 12:00 - 4:00
    New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    farm animals, sustainable farming
    More details...
    Cost: free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Make Pfizer Blue Slime!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Put on your lab coat and work along side our Pfizer scientists to conduct your own science experiment and create blue slime (4% polyvinyl alcohol, 4% sodium borate solution, food coloring).  You will take measurements, use pipettes, combine ingredients and see the magic of science at work!  Kids will put on lab coats, gloves and googles.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    MIT Formula SAE Race Car
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    The car is an open-wheeled Formula-style race car powered by a 600cc Honda motorcycle engine running on E85 ethanol. It is completely designed and built by MIT students. The car competes in a collegiate competition against teams from around the world, and is judged based on static design and dynamic performance.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Physics of the Playground
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Tots to teens can become experts on the physics of the playground by exploring momentum, friction, levers and gravity through swings, slides and seesaws. Example activities: Describe different types of movement Explore friction by sliding down the slide on different materials, such as carpet scraps, rubber mats, plastic bags. See how one can lift an adult (or inanimate objects) on a seesaw by adjusting where one sits. Explore momentum by coming down a slide with a ball and see if it stops when you do. Tots and younger children will be challenged to make observations and describe. Older children will be challenged to make predictions, and create a better "ride".
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Youth Build Electronic Circuits with a Smile
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Recycling: Where's That Stuff Go?
    Cambridge Public Library (4/24) and MIT Museum (5/1, not confirmed)
    Ever wondered why we can recycle plastic but not Styrofoam? How clean does recycling need to be, and why? Come play with a LEGO demonstration to learn about the science of recycling and how it determines what we can and cannot put into those blue bins.
    More details...
    Cost: free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Roche Bros' Danger Rangers!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    We will be presenting "The Danger Rangers" from our own Kids Club. Burble, Kitty and Sully will be there. We will also have face painting and mind teasers along with some fun handouts!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Millennium Pharmaceuticals Cancer Drug Development
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway

    Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s hands-on display will give an overview of cancer drug development by comparing normal, healthy cells to cancer cells, and by highlighting the mechanism of action of bortezomib (VELCADE®).  Bortezomib is Millennium Pharmaceuticals’ product for treatment of multiple myeloma and mantle-cell lymphoma.  Using microscopes, stained tissue/cell slides, a movie and computer presentations, this exhibit will provide a close look into the molecular world of cancer and cancer treatment.

    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Robotics with Children's Technology Workshop
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway

    Maybe you've used LEGOs to build spaceships or cities, but have you ever used LEGOs to build robots? We'll be using LEGO Mindstorms materials to explore how robots are designed, constructed, programmed, and powered. Hands-on challenges with pneumatics, hand-powered generators, computer programming, and more!
    More details...
    Cost: free
  • 12:00 - 4:00
    Optics Suitcase
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    We have an Optics Suitcase filled with experiments that demonstrate the principles of light, such as transmission, refraction and reflection, in an entertaining, hands-on way. For instance, we have fiber optics made of Jello and an experiment with an overhead projector which shows why the sky is blue. And we have a huge kaleidoscope to demonstrate the properties of reflection.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Boston GreenFest Solar Workshop with John Francis
    Carnival
    John Francis is the amazing energy man who will teach you about electricity and solar power with his array of solar gadgets! Come see for yourself.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4pm
    Model Organism Zoo
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Graduate students from Science in the News at Harvard University want to share with you the "zoo" of research organisms we study! Although much smaller than what you would see at the Franklin Park Zoo, the organisms used by scientist to study biology are really amazing (and the scientists are fun too). Meet some of the most common laboratory creatures (and their scientist handlers), including yeast, bacteria, nematode worms, fruit flies, zebrafish embryos and cress plants. Then become a scientist yourself and take our Phenotype/Genotype Challenge. We will have examples of organisms that are different by only a single change in their DNA, or genotype. Can you figure out what characteristic, or phenotype, is different? After looking through the microscope you might decide to become a scientist too!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    MIT's Brainia!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Hands-on Exploration of a Hydrothermal Vent
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Try your hands at navigating a remote-controlled submarine through a "mock" hydrothermal vent at the ocean floor while learning about the amazing creatures that live there. Discovered in 1977, deep-sea hydrothermal vents revolutionized ideas about where and how life can exist. How can so much life thrive at the sunless seafloor? What special features do organisms have to live at hydrothermal vents? Why do different kinds of animals live at different vent sites? Join staff from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to learn more about this extreme environment and the /Alvin/ submarine used by scientists to explore it.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00 - 4:00pm
    Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Making!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Ever wanted to make ice cream? You choose the flavor and we'll add the cream and sugar... then watch it freeze in seconds with the help of some liquid nitrogen! Who knew science could be this delicious?!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Deep-Sea Robotic Arm Demo
    MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave.
    Talk with engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as they demonstrate how they use a customized, 105-pound robotic arm to explore seafloors around the world.  Hear how they designed and built this lightweight arm (for a robot, that is) that can withstand the tremendous pressure of the deep ocean.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Be a Biogen Idec Scientist!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come learn about what happens at a biopharmaceutical company and meet some of the people that work at Biogen Idec! You can try loading and running a gel, just like our scientists do. And, you find out about how we develop new medicines.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    The 5 Senses - East End House Presents Science After School
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Hands-on activities and "Wow" demonstrations to make sense of your five senses!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Beyond Benign Foundation - General Info and Hands-On Activity
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come and spin the Green Chemistry Wheel! Learn about green chemistry and its role in your life, play different green chemistry related games, and win prizes. Discover how you can save the world by becoming a scientist! GO GREEN CHEMISTRY!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    HAL - Mobile Advanced Command and Control Station
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    The MIT Humans and Automation Lab sponsors mini tours and demo activities of the Mobile Advanced Command and Control Station (MACCS). This mobile unit, a large cargo van, features a multi-operator replica of the U.S. Navy's Multi-Modal WorkStation. Visitors will view inside the MACCS and talk with grad students and staff about technology-enabled experimental meetings, operations and teaming scenarios.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Science Comes Alive
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Science demonstrations geared toward middle school-aged children that are designed to entertain and inspire. Experiments and demonstrations might include exploding yogurt cartons, a smoking chemical transformation, turning carbon dioxide into a liquid, a colorful chemical reaction, frozen liquid nitrogen ice cream, and other inspirational demonstrations.
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Mer+ge Science Design Contest
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Free t-shirt/poster design contest for kids, teens, and adults. Sit down with us and draw a science themed design for a graphic tee or poster. You'll also be able to view Mer+ge's numerous science themed shirts for ideas. We'll provide the materials. All you'll need to do is join us for a great time! We'll chose a winner on May 14th to receive a Mer+ge Prize Pack!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Energy Efficiency Game Show
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Test your knowledge of home energy efficiency and conservation with this fun, interactive game show! Learn how to save money and energy with simple things you can do at home. Prizes will be awarded by a glorious Vanna White wannabe wielding a caulk gun -- don't miss it!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm- 4:00pm
    Dinosaur Footprints
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Dinosaur Footprints!  Traces of dinosaur life, in the form of footprints in sandstone, were found in Massachusetts even before the word dinosaur was invented and fully four decades before the skeletons of huge dinosaurs were found in the American west. Come see fossilized dinosaur footprints, fish, ripple marks, mud cracks, insect trails, and worm burrows from the Connecticut River Valley. See if you can figure out how scientists learn about dinosaurs and paleoclimate by studying fossils like these. If you're lucky, maybe you'll find a keepsake to take home with you!
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Annosphere
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    See the seasons change before your eyes, as the hand-crafted, brass and mahogany annosphere cycles night and day in minutes. In the style of 19th century scientific instruments, the annosphere mechanically models the earth-sun relationship. Like a sundial, the annosphere uses light to tell time with a moving shadow. It recreates sunrise and sunset, the solstices and the equinoxes, for any place on earth.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Bottled Water v Tap Water
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Ever wonder which water, bottled or tap, is healthier, safer or more sustainable? CDM will explore the answers to these questions and others while you sip on a refreshing, cool drink. CDM will also be hosting a "Cities of the Future" interactive demonstration at this booth. Learn how applied science and engineering principles help cities around the world develop creative ways to improve quality of life, create economic opportunities, and provide for vital amenities, like open space for recreation and outdoor activities - all while enhancing and protecting the natural environment. For more information about "Cities of the Future," check out our Podcast at http://www.cdm.com/knowledge_center/podcasts/.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Whaddya Know About Your H2O?
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    We use water for drinking, cleaning our dishes, taking showers, and watering our flowers every day. Have you ever wanted to know how our WATER is cleaned and made so clear? WATER TREATMENT makes water safe for people to use! This interactive exhibit and demonstration will explore the following water treatment processes: Aeration,  Coagulation,  Sedimentation, Filtration,  Disinfection.  Kids can get their hands dirty making their own dirty water, by adding food coloring, cooking oil, or pieces of Styrofoam. Then they'll apply basic water treatment processes to clean it up. Small groups of 2-5 can try their hand at removing common impurities that can make water look, smell and taste bad using a miniature water treatment device made from a two-liter soda bottle, gravel or sand, cotton balls and coffee filters. The groups will answer such questions as: What does the water look like during the filtration step?  Can you identify each filtering material removed from the water?  What types of pollution can harm the water?  What kind of treatment can we use to make polluted water better? Each group will be led by a scientist or engineer, who will explain each step in the process. Total demonstration time will be 30 minutes.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Gigantic Bookmaking
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come and sew! Help create a gigantic book out of found papers and watch an old technique come to life with modern materials.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Read Your Own Genome!
    The Boston Open Source Science Lab, 339R Summer Street, Somerville
    Explore your own genome with DIYbio Boston at the Boston Open Source Science Lab! In this workshop, you'll amplify a fragment of one of your genes and examine it with PCR for mutations. The whole procedure takes about 6 hours and can be broken up over 2 days. Come get to know your own genome better with us at the BOSSlab!
    More details...
    Cost: $40
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Wires, Buzzers and Lights! - Hands-on Circuit Construction
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Wires, buzzers, lights, switches and buttons! Learn how construct series circuits on the basis of drawings and diagrams. Will the bulb light? Make predictions and then construct the circuits to check your predictions.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Massachusetts Academy of Sciences
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    "WOW" science demos, live animals, and information about the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Silicon in Motion
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Analog Devices, Inc. will demonstrate several sensors that can show acceleration measurements in real time.  Added bonus - hands on activities for children.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Amgen
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come and discover for yourself some really cool science with researchers from Amgen, one of the largest biotechs in the world.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 1:00pm
    Solar Lunch
    On the plaza in front of the Museum of Science
    Observe the sun and possibly sunspots and solar flares through the Museum's safe solar telescope. Weather Permitting
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:00pm - 4:00pm
    Work with TERC to Help the Earth!
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come try activities from the Girls' Energy Conservation Corps., GECCO.  This Girl Scout badge program teaches about environmental choices and action.  Join the ranks of GECCO by sampling some of the activities in the program, and learn how to make the Earth greener!  You can also sample activities from Statistics for Action, assume the place of environmental organizers by using hands-on activities to seek environmental justice!  And while you're at TERC's booth, take with you some of our free math games for your elementary school student to enjoy.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 12:30pm - 1:30pm, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
    The Blackberry Solar Cell: A Green Chemistry Activity
    Carnival-Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway
    Come be a green chemist for the day! You can build your own solar cell using unexpected materials like a blackberry fruit. Learn about how solar cells can be made in a greener way while keeping safety, cost and performance in mind. After you construct your solar cell, test to see how well it works! Activity appropriate for all age levels.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 2:00pm - 2:30pm
    Nature Storytime
    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street
    Join us for readings of stories and poems designed to engage the next generation of explorers with themes related to the museum's galleries. For children 6 and under. Free with museum admission.
    More details...
    Cost: Free with museum admission
  • 2:00pm- 5:00pm
    From the Care of our Earth to the Wonders of our Universe
    MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
    Teenagers in MIT's Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship and Terrascope Youth Radio programs join forces to present an intriguing portfolio of science/technology/arts presentations on our earth and the universe. Through the fusion of art, science, experiential learning, and social impact local high school youth pursued innovative and creative ideas to share scientific knowledge with their audiences. Come and enjoy science theater productions, art and science exhibits, planetarium shows, interactive displays and radio stories that will introduce you to discoveries and wonders about our earth and the universe.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 2:00pm - 5:00pm
    Teens, Our Environment, and Radio
    Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street
    Terrascope Youth Radio is radio that makes a difference. It’s radio created by urban teens, for urban teens, about the environment—our world, our city, our neighborhoods, our schools. It’s radio about the big issues—such as global warming—and also about everyday stories, such as how to be environmentally conscious when you shop.  Our interactive exhibit will give you the opportunity to hear and comment on our work, to see us demonstrate our equipment, and even learn how to use it yourself.  Terrascope Youth Radio is a partnership between MIT and the City of Cambridge Youth Programs, developed with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Part of "From the Care of Our Earth to the Wonders of the Universe."
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 2:30pm - 5:00pm
    Making Science Toys from "Trash"
    Beaver Brook Reservation, Waverly Oaks Road, Belmont
    Make clever science toys out of recycled or inexpensive materials Possible choices include: --- a desktop catapult --- a model of a windmill with whale-inspired blades --- a micro-lift (tiny elevator) --- a flip flop boat Combine your engineering skill with techniques from the Museum of Science engineering curriculum. Videotaping by BMC is likely. Outdoors, if weather permits.
    More details...
    Cost: $4.00 per family
  • 3:00pm - 5:00pm
    Water, Water, Everywhere!
    Museum of Science, Suit Cabot Lab Classroom
    Explore the water all around us through fun, hands-on experiments and activities for the whole family. You can even bring in some tap water from home and see what's in it.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 5:00pm April 23 - 11:00am April 24
    Museum of Science Overnight-Friday to Saturday
    Museum of Science
    Ever wonder what happens to the Museum at night? The learning and fun continue with our Overnight Program for students in grades 1 - 7 and their adult chaperones. Discover science in an entertaining, educational, and interactive way through experiments, a Theater of Electricity Lightning! show, an Omni film, and much more. Plus, where else do you have a chance to sleep under a dinosaur or a giant grasshopper?
    ****Overnight begins on the eve of the Cambridge Science Festival, April 23rd at 5 p.m.*****
    More details...
    Cost: $45 per person. Preregistration is required.
  • 7:30 - 9:30pm
    Big Ideas for Busy People
    The Laboratory at Harvard, Northwest Building, 52 Oxford Street

    Pre-Festival Event

    Friday, April 23, 2010

    Imagine a short, sharp series of 10 brilliant, expertly refereed talks by some of Cambridge's finest, including Lisa Randall, Ed Boyden, Nicholas Christakis, George Church, Max Tegmark, Marc Hauser, Rebecca Saxe, Peter Galison, Angela Belcher, and Pardis Sabeti.   Five minutes per talk, plus five minutes for questions - presenting a kaleidoscope of eye-popping, mind-boggling ideas - all in the space of just 2 hours!  Reception with speakers to follow.
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 7:30 - 10:00pm
    80 YEARS OF ASTRONOMY!
    Harvard Observatory, 60 Garden St., Bldg. D, Phillips Auditorium
    This special event will celebrate the 80th anniversary of "Observatory Nights" founded in the Spring of 1930 by Harvard College Observatory director Harlow Shapley. This lecture event includes special viewing through historic Harvard refractors of the night sky. Tonight it's 1930 all over again!
    More details...
    Cost: Free
  • 8:00pm
    From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story
    Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
    Catalyst Collaborative@MIT - Underground Railway Theater's science theater initiative with MIT - presents this World Premiere by award-winning playwright Melinda Lopez, commissioned by the National Institutes of Health to celebrate the 150th anniversary of "On the Origin of Species." Surprises erupt as a muralist's work is derailed by hallucinations, pregnancy, and dinosaurs in this witty take on how we understand - or do not - the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin comments on it all.
    More details...
    Cost: $15-35
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