CLIMATE – Cambridge Science Festival

science + climate

October 6, 2022

Brought to you by

With unprecedented average temperatures and climate-related crises causing destruction across the globe, science must be our first line of defense. This day is dedicated to all things environmental, renewable and sustainable – the urgent ideas and technologies that will protect us in years to come.

All events

FEATURED EVENT

Growing Islands – Rebuilding Coastlines through Wave Energy

05:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Lee Family Exchange

Skylar Tibbits and Walt Zesk present a novel approach to addressing the mounting threat of climate change-induced coastal erosion.

Trees Telling STEM Stories: the Witness Tree Project

02:00 PM

Cambridge Common, at the base of the Washington Elm tree

Come meet Cambridge’s newest addition to the Witness Tree network.

Modular Rooftop Farming in Boston

12:00 PM

Kendall/MIT Open Space: The Festival Zone

An up-close-and-personal look at the modular rooftop farming system currently in use at Fenway Park and Boston Medical Center, presented by Recover Green Roofs.

Building, Testing, and Cooking with Solar Cookers on October 6

12:00 PM

Kendall/MIT Open Space: The Festival Zone

We will display and operate solar cookers, both homemade and commercial models, as well as relevant books, articles, and laboratory materials.

City Scanner: Turning Urban Vehicles into Sensing Platforms

12:00 PM

Kendall/MIT Open Space: The Festival Zone

MIT's Senseable City Lab will present the City Scanner project, a low-cost sensing device that can turn ordinary vehicles like taxis and garbage trucks into valuable sources of urban environmental information.

Nature-Inspired, Nano-Solutions to Environmental Problems

05:30 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Central Square Branch, Main Floor

Demonstrations and explanations on how bioinspired nanostructured materials can solve a variety of environmental problems such as air and water pollution.

Art for Impact with the Peabody Essex Museum

10:00 AM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, The Hive

Learn about PEM's Climate Action: Inspiring Change exhibition through art and conversation.

Building with Nature: Resilient Coastlines for Our Cities and Ecosystems

06:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Heide Education Suite

Join MIT graduate students James Vincent Brice and Autumn Deitrick in a hands-on wave flume demonstration to learn about water wave mechanics and the way coastal ecosystems like mangrove forests, salt marshes, seagrass meadows and oyster reefs protect our shorelines in the face of global climate change.

Wholehearted Regeneration: Boosting Communal and Climate Resilience One Pocket Forest at a Time

03:00 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, Lecture Hall

Learn about the first urban pocket forest planted with the Miyawaki Method in the Northeastern USA, and explore the family of ecosystem restoration solutions to climate change. The event will involve a presentation and a Q&A session.

Fungi in a Drought-Stricken Time

07:30 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, Community Room

Mycologist Lawrence Millman will talk about the current drought in New England (not to mention the rest of North America) and its effect on fungi. Likewise he'll discuss how other life forms suffer when fungi don't have water.

Learn Climate with Open MIT Resources

04:00 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, Rossi Room

Open education leaders from MIT will demonstrate the free learning materials from MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, OCW, and MITx, moving from engaging introductions through more advanced resources.

One Sphere

06:00 PM

Kendall/MIT Open Space: The Festival Zone

Explore an immersive 360-degree artwork within a sustainably-built geodesic sphere. One Sphere is a magical glow-in-the-dark installation experience that springs to life using UV lamps, 3D glasses, and imagination! One Sphere inspires visitors to create, collaborate, and care for our planet’s interconnected circle of life.

MIT Sea Grant: A Tour of Lab Facilities with Robots, Test Tanks, and More

03:00 PM

MIT Sea Grant

Come and see robot boats, submarines and a variety of other ocean engineering projects!

EN-ROADS Climate Workshop

07:30 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, The Hive

Join this 1-hour interactive workshop where you can test your ideas for climate solutions.

Silk Offers an Alternative to Microplastics

01:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Heide Education Suite

Join MIT professors Marelli and Liu as they use silk to replace some of the microplastics in agriculture and cosmetic industries.

FEATURED EVENT

Grand Challenges: How Climate, Health and Equity are Impacting Life in Boston and Beyond

07:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Lee Family Exchange

Cambridge Science Festival's keynote panel discussion, brought to you by Biogen.

The InnSure Climate Initiative (ICI) Climate Forum

09:00 AM

Cambridge Innovation Center, 245 Main Street

The ICI Climate Forum is an in-person gathering for investors, experts, innovators and others who believe the insurance industry can and must run toward risks associated with climate change.

Protecting Biodiversity – Urban Wetlands

09:00 AM

Horn Pond, 50 Sturgis St, Woburn, MA 01801. Please meet at the Sturgis Street parking lot of Horn Pond, 50 Sturgis Street Woburn, MA 01801. On Google Map » 42.473774, -71.157589.

Understanding How Land Use & Climate Change Impact Ecological Systems in Urban Wetlands - How to Help

Protecting Biodiversity – Urban Forests

01:00 PM

Middlesex Fells Reservation, Flynn Rink Parking Lot (Medford). Please meet at Flynn Rink parking lot (Medford). Location on Google Map » 42.443108, -71.094560.

Understanding How Land Use & Climate Change Impact Ecological Systems in Urban Forests - How to Help

Open Innovation for Climate Action

02:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Lee Family Exchange

SOUR will share its mission and examples from its work that enable open-sourcing of sustainability solutions to raise awareness among the public and empower climate action.

Listening to the Universe: An Introduction to Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics

04:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Sharp Room

Come learn the latest news about gravitational waves and black holes!

Storm Drain Design Challenge

04:00 PM

Alewife Brook Reservation, Alewife Brook Pkwy, Cambridge MA 02140

Come prepared to enjoy the wetland habitat, learn about climate change, and get creative!

Model Generation for Climate Change Preparedness

05:30 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, Community Room, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138

Interactive wind turbine model and solar cell power generation, informative posters and a presentation on how software modeling can help us prevent and prepare for climate change.

BOSLab Open House: Making Science Accessible to Everyone in the Community

05:00 PM

BOSLab, 10 Harvey St. Cambridge, MA 02140

Join us for a fun evening of interactive science activities and meet our community of citizen scientists, artists, and makers.

Time Travel: Visiting Ancient Life on Earth

06:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Sharp Room

Join biogeochemist and science journalist Fatima Husain for a quick how-to on how to travel time on Earth! Using fossils and information hidden within life’s genetic code, scientists and science enthusiasts alike can travel back billions of Earth years to explore the origins of life, climate change, and even astrobiology.

DearTomorrow: Envisioning a Sustainable Future in a Time of Climate Change

05:30 PM

Commonwealth Salon, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116

DearTomorrow is a climate storytelling project that makes climate change more personally relevant by connecting to the values that we all share.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle with Pine Village Preschool

04:00 PM

Cambridge Public Library: Main Branch, Community Room

Pine Village Preschool will offer a presentation that addresses how we teach children to take care of our planet.

Protecting Biodiversity with Next-Generation Natural History and Participatory Science

12:00 PM

Kendall/MIT Open Space: Discovery Zone

Collaborative Biodiversity and Climate Participatory Science: No One Left Behind – Educate, Empower, and ACT. Tackling biodiversity and climate issues together while providing critical data to local, national, and global projects. Come visit us and learn how Earthwise Aware empowers communities, making nature science accessible to all.

Sampling Earthwatch

12:00 PM

Kendall/MIT Open Space: Discovery Zone

Come experience what it’s like to contribute to scientific field research with Earthwatch scientists on one of our many programs!

Silk Offers an Alternative to Microplastics

01:00 PM

MIT Museum: The Heide Education Suite

Join MIT professors Marelli and Liu as they use silk to replace some of the microplastics in agriculture and cosmetic industries.