Explore and experiment with mechanical motion as you create your own moving art. Along the way, discover how simple mechanisms like cams, linkages, and levers work to generate different types of movement.

Think you have what it takes to build an unsinkable ship? Join us for some stories, and then we will build boats out of tin foil. If your boat floats we’ll add pennies to see how much weight they hold! For children ages 5 and up and their caregivers.

There are so many fun ways to trick your eyes and brain! Create your own optical illusion and explore how we take in and process visual information.

In recent years there has been a surge in tools that facilitate creative works using AI (such as DALL-E and Chat-GPT) and with that has come both creative uses for those tools and ethical questions around artist ownership and copyright. The NSF Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) will host a workshop to share how these tools work and what ethical concerns arise in relation to them. Attendees will then be invited to submit AI-generated poetry and prose to be read and displayed at a reception. Anyone who submits will be entered to win a gift card. Refreshments will be provided.

This event is co-sponsored by the MIT Media Lab and is made possible with funds from the MIT School of Science Quality of Life program.

*** Organizer will provide lunch. ***

Can biomaterials build a more sustainable future? Decide for yourself in this hands-on workshop as you create colorful string from seaweed-derived polymers. Work together with your family, experiment with different formulas and extrusion methods, and put your creative skills to the test!

Supported by the Biogen Foundation.

Bring yourself, plant clippings (if you have them), and lots of excitement to the new home of Sasaki & the Sasaki Foundation in downtown Boston. Meet some new friends, learn about the science of propagation, have a drink, and celebrate Cambridge Science Festival. Never propagated plants before? No worries. Here is a useful guide for propagating common houseplants in water. Don’t have any houseplants? That’s okay, too! You can still participate, hang out, and go home with a new plant.

To ensure we have enough soil, planters, and snacks, please RSVP if you plan on attending.

The Charles River Floating Wetland was installed in 2020 to enable important research on artificial wetland technology. The pilot project met both climate resilience goals and created connections to the Charles River. Learn about the success of this pilot from the Charles River Conservancy and help design a look into the future by creating a vision for additional wetlands in the Charles.

Explore and experiment with mechanical motion as you create your own moving art. Along the way, discover how simple mechanisms like cams, linkages, and levers work to generate different types of movement.

Explore and experiment with mechanical motion as you create your own moving art. Along the way, discover how simple mechanisms like cams, linkages, and levers work to generate different types of movement.

Come try out a new family-centric creative play and coding app on the phone, brought to you by the developers of Scratch.

Explore and experiment with mechanical motion as you create your own moving art. Along the way, discover how simple mechanisms like cams, linkages, and levers work to generate different types of movement.

Join us to celebrate Isabel and the Invisible World, the second book from renowned physicist and New York Times best selling author Alan Lightman, with colorful, hands-on activities and a reading of the book. This event is presented in collaboration with MIT Kids Press, an imprint of Candlewick Press, the MIT Press Bookstore.

Young readers rejoice! Free copies of Isabel and the Invisible World will be distributed at the event, while supplies last. Please choose “Free Ticket + Book” to reserve your copy, limited to one per household.

All ages are welcome but activities are geared towards ages 3-10. All minors must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Responsible adults, please keep a close eye on your kids.

Learn to mend your clothing and fix broken electronics, appliances, computers, toys, sewing machines, bicycles, etc. at the Fixit Clinic. Fixit Coaches will share their time, tools and expertise to consult with you on the disassembly, troubleshooting, and repair of your item. Gain the confidence and knowledge to make repairs and teach others to do the same. This event takes place at The Foundry, located at 101 Rogers St, Cambridge.

Open to all ages, registration is required.

This event is brought to you by The Foundry, The Cambridge Department of Public Works, and Fixit Clinic.

With climate change increasing wildfire frequency and our wildland-urban interface (WUI) expanding, wildfire fuel management is more important than ever. Learn about the science and reality of wildfires and fuel reduction methods from Georgia Scarr – a young wildland firefighter, environmental non-profit co-founder, and wildfire researcher at the Stanford Bill Lane Center for the American West. This workshop includes hands-on demonstrations modeling wildfire behavior, first-hand accounts of fuel reduction case studies, and a chainsaw maintenance lesson.

How do you inspire a new generation of entomologists and scientists? With hands-on fun, of course! Stop by and see some of the amazing arthropods featured in educational kids’ enrichment programs from Professor Bugman Entomology Adventures!

Science educators of all levels, bring a portable demo or instrument to share how your students are learning about science phenomena. Tabletop wind turbines, cell-phone-based electrophoresis kit, fossil collections, chaotic pendulums, your best paper airplane design, home titration kit, whatevs. EnergyTeachers.org will bring doppler radar, a handheld oscilloscope, a solar cooker, and more from our lending library for teachers.

The CUA will present several hands-on demonstrations for kids and families. The event will kick off with an introduction by MIT Professor Martin Zwierlein on the nature of cold. Kids can then explore a tornado machine, a demonstration of an ion trap, a station to make your own holograms, and a liquid nitrogen demo by CUA researchers.

Facetopo will host an interactive pop-up with creators and models to demonstrate our AI makeup app that helps you do makeup a better way. Come learn about beauty tools and clean beauty disruptors:

Come learn about circuits with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE)! We will have materials available at our SWE Boston table such as LEDs, coin cell batteries, copper tape and paper so participants can make their own light-up creations. You could even make a flashing firetruck card!

Explore the science of lasers with demonstrations, hands-on activities, and more! Learn about optics and the endless possibilities of laser technology.

Data visualization is a powerful tool for making sense of complex information, but it often relies solely on our visual sense to communicate insights. In this event, multidisciplinary designer Tiange Wang shares a different approach to creating and sharing data stories by incorporating additional sensory elements like taste, smell, texture and physical interaction into the mix. Engage in a hands-on design workshop where you can start to sketch out your own set of data wagashi to make and share.

Explore and experiment with mechanical motion as you create your own moving art. Along the way, discover how simple mechanisms like cams, linkages, and levers work to generate different types of movement.