United Way of
Massachusetts Bay

5 STEM Activities To Try At Home

Over the last few months, the BoSTEM team has hosted multiple Movie, Make + Meet events for students in collaboration with several of our partners. These events take place virtually and consist of students watching a film chosen by our STEM professional partners and the BoSTEM team in a watch party environment called Scener. While students watch the film they get the opportunity to chat and ask questions with volunteers from these partners while also participating in an asynchronous maker or hands on activity using common materials from around their home that relates to the partner organization or the topics in the film. We want to share this recap of our last 5 Movie, Make + Meets, in no particular order, so any students who did not get the chance to attend can still have the same experience asynchronously. This guide will contain a link to where you can watch the film, instructions for the maker activity, and a link to a relevant STEM Chat or Bite from BoSTEM in place of the original speaker. Finally, a chance to volunteer or get connected to bring this event to your classroom or program. Thank you to our partners SySTEMic Flow, the Boston Red Sox, Courageous Sailing, Community Boat Building,  Speak for the Trees,and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy for hosting these events with us!

Hidden Figures with SySTEMic Flow

As a way to celebrate the end of our Math Escape Room event with our partners SySTEMic Flow, we hosted a watch party for the inspirational film Hidden Figures and featured a chat with Sabrina Thompson, an Aerospace Engineer from NASA Goddard. Prior to the movie, we hosted an event to honor the students that performed the best during the escape rooms and gave each a prize. Overall 34 students participated in the Math Escape Room event and completed the escape rooms (which you can still participate in by clicking here and check out our new math escape room made with our partners at the Boston Children’s Museum). Students were given awards based on their times for completing the event and for responses they wrote about the different BIPOC mathematicians highlighted in the event. Students wrote responses on a Padlet about which of the mathematicians were heroes to them. as well as participating in a puzzle contest where the winner got a copy of Sabrina Thompson’s book Girl in Space. 

Here is how we ran the event and how you can bring this activity to your class/home

  • Movie– We watched Hidden Figures through the Disney+ streaming service and broadcasted it to attendees over Scener. The film is available for free with a Disney+ subscription but can also be rented for around $3.99.
  • Meet- Students got to chat with Sabrina Thompson, an Aerospace Engineer at NASA and author of the book Girl in Space. Thompson discussed her path to working at NASA, the mentors she had along the way,  and how she likes to balance her work as an artist with her work in STEM. Her advice to students was to remember that being different is good. Click here to watch the recording of her chat.

The Rookie with the Boston Red Sox 

This special event saw the BoSTEM team collaborating with the Boston Red Sox to host an event focusing on the intersection of science, math, and baseball. Seth Shuman, the Group Sales & Service Account Executive with the Boston Red Sox joined us to watch a Disney classic baseball movie The Rookie and talk about his career with the Sox and what STEM-related career options they have with the team. When discussing the various STEM careers at Fenway Park, he said “there are so many positions at the park that lean on their STEM education background. Everyone from our groundskeeper Dave Mellor who works to keep the field protected from the elements and in playing condition to the web team that builds our website and ticketing system.” 

Here is how we ran the event and how you can bring this activity to your class/home:

  • Movie- We watched The Rookie through the Disney+ streaming service and broadcasted the event on Scener. The film is available for free with a Disney+ subscription but can also be rented for around $2.99.
  • Make- The maker activity for this event was to create a baseball bat and ball using recycled materials. This activity was meant to educate students on the physics and math behind the sport of baseball! Click here to access the maker activity.
  • Meet- Students had the opportunity to hear from Shuman about his rise from being a ball boy for the Boston Celtics to his current position with the Red Sox and what it means for a local kid to work his hometown team. If your student is interested in math and physics, we recommend they watch this STEM Chat from George Jarvis of Thermo Fisher who talks about how he uses math and physics in his career. Click here to watch Jarvis’ STEM Chat.

Maidentrip with Courageous Sailing and Community Boat Building

We hosted a sailing themed Movie, Make + Meet with our partners Courageous Sailing and Community Boat Building to celebrate Laura Dekker, the youngest person to sail around the world. We watched the documentary Maidentrip that chronicled Dekker’s two year trip around the world and had students build their own model boats. The seven students in attendance also had the chance to ask representatives from both of our partner organizations anything they wanted about sailing and the ocean. 

Here is how we ran the event and how you can bring this activity to your class/home:

  • Movie- We watched Maidentrip through Amazon Prime Video and broadcasted the event on Scener. The film is free with a Prime Video subscription or can be rented from Prime for $2.99.
  • Make- For this event, students made a model boat out of recycled and household materials. This activity is designed to teach students about how boats work and sailing technology. Click here to access the maker activity.
  • Meet- Students had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Courageous Sailing and Community Boat Building to learn all about sailing and the science behind it. If your student is interested in the ocean and wants to try to turn that passion into a STEM career, we recommend watching this related STEM Chat from Alicia Kauffman, a coastal engineer with Jacobs Engineering. This chat was also featured in our Top 5 STEM Chats and Bites series. Click here to watch Kauffman’s STEM Chat.

Flubber and Attack of the Puppet People for STEMcation Week

During our STEMcation Week, BoSTEM hosted two separate Movie, Make + Meet events as a way for STEM professionals and families to meet and interact with each other. The first event featured a Disney hidden gem Flubber and the second event was a friendly roast of the B-Movie Attack of the Puppet People. Neither event featured our traditional ‘speaker’ from an organization, but rather was just an open dialogue amongst STEM professionals about the two films we hosted. To tie the two films together, we had an activity surrounding the scientific method inspired by the two mad scientist main characters from the two respective films. 

Here is how we ran the event and how you can bring this activity to your class/home:

  • Make- The maker activity for this event focused around the scientific method and how each of the ‘mad scientists’ in the respective films used the scientific method in their experiments. Click here to access the maker activity.
  • Meet- The goal of this event was to facilitate conversation between STEM professionals in the Boston area. If your student is interested in a career in STEM, it is important they know how to communicate professionally. To help prepare them, they can watch a professional development talk from Ethan Arrowod of Microsoft. Click here to watch Arrowod’s talk.

Intelligent Trees with Speak for the Trees and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy

In celebration of Earth and Arbor Week, BoSTEM hosted a Movie, Make + Event alongside our partners Speak for the Trees and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. We were joined by Natalie Merline of Speak for the Trees and watched the film Intelligent Trees to learn about how trees communicate with each other. At this event students got the opportunity to learn about the trees that are in and around their neighborhood while also learning about the work these two conservation organizations do around the city of Boston. 

Here is how we ran the event and how you can bring this activity to your class/home:

  • Movie- We watched Intelligent Trees on Amazon Prime Video and broadcasted the event live on Scener. This movie is available for free with a Prime Video subscription and can also be viewed for free on Tubi.
  • Make- The maker activity for this event saw students make leaf rubbings with leafs from trees around their neighborhoods. The purpose of this activity was to teach students about leafs and the trees by their homes. Click here to access the maker activity.
  • Meet- At this event students got the opportunity to hear from Natalie from Speak for the Trees and learn about their mission to plant more trees all around Boston. If a student is interested in hearing more about environmental science in the greater Boston area, we recommend watching this STEM Chat from Erica Holm of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. Click here to watch Holm’s STEM Chat. 

Looking Ahead

For our next Movie, Make + Meet (click here for info), we will show Inside Out with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare on Friday May 28th at 2 PM EST for Mental Health Awareness Month. This is a free hour and a half film about how an 11-year-old girl’s emotions try to help her adjust to a big move that is intended towards students 4-12th to enjoy. We will be doing an activity where students can make their own Feelings Chart to help students understand their emotions and the actions that come from them. For the event, we will be joined by Alec Shostek from Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare who is researching ways to improve the physical and mental health of pregnant women and their children. We are so excited for you and your student to ask questions to Alec. Click here to attend! 

Find out more about all things BoSTEM, by clicking here! Interested in hosting a Movie, Make + Meet event with your organization? Email Alexa Rose at arose@supportunitedway.org! If you’re interested in seeing some of our STEM Chats and Bites, feel free to check out this playlist to see our full offering of programming. These potentially career-defining opportunities are not possible without our volunteers graciously offering their time. If you or someone at your company is interested in hosting a STEM Chat, Bite or this event, please click here!