#capecodsciencecafe

For the 5th consecutive year, the Cape Cod Science Cafe has been housed in the Cape & Islands Boy Scouts of America’s Wicked Cool Autumn Welcome at Camp Greenough in Yarmouthport, Cape Cod. The science cafe takes over the mess hall and many local STEM stakeholders bring hands-on STEM related activities to share with the attendees ranging in age from grades K-8. While this is a Boy Scout hosted and sponsored event, this one is open to the public. For a $15 fee, students get to carve and take home a pumpkin as well as a woodworking project. All the other activities including fishing, archery, science cafe and more are included in the fee.

 Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

Photo by Brian D’Amico

Those wishing to join us Saturday October 28, 2017 from 1pm-4pm were asked to preregister to guarantee a pumpkin and woodworking project: https://www.scoutscapecod.org/calendar/209/2933-Wicked-Cool-Autumn-Welcome.html

Photo by Brian D’Amico

Cambridge Science Festival’s Science on the Street brought the cool science for the 5th consecutive year! 

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan 

Cambridge Science Festival’s Science on the Street is always up for bringing thematic activities to our events! This year was no exception: They brought their augmented-reality sand table and Cape Cod sea life exhibit.

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

The Barnstable County Sheriff’s outreach team was back on board and brought their fingerprinting kits and chatted with the students about how they use forensic and digital tools solve crimes! 

Photo by Brian D’Amico

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

We actually are responsible for the Barnstable County Sherriff’s Office doing outreach events! Their first one was with us at Wicked Cool in 2016 when we invited them to participate since the 2016 National Chemistry Week (NCW) was forensic science!

Speaking of NCW themes, the 2017  theme of National Chemistry Week was Chemistry Rocks! Our friend from Smithers Viscent and fellow NESACS member, Paul Reibach,brought a thematic activity: An investigative exploration of lava.

Photo by J.L.Maclachlan

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

We had special guests and first time participants, Laura Brothers, Brian Buczkowski and Jason Chaytor from the US Geological Survey coming with a special interactive demonstration of what makes up the sea floor.  

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

Arghhhh! Our friend and archaeologist, Marie Zahn, from the Whydah Pirate Museum, was on hand to lead attendees through simulated archaeological digs for pirate artifacts. The Whydah Pirate Museum houses the world’s only authenticated pirate treasure and they are located right here on Cape Cod!

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

Heard of the Internet of Things (IoT)?  Local engineer and STEM educator, Bradshaw Lumpton, brought a household water use experiment using state-of-the-art sensor technology that excited and delighted the engineer in all of us.

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

You know what’s “wicked cool”? Our friends at Wicked Cool for Kids joined us at the Wicked Cool STEM Science Cafe! What’s cooler than atomic worms? Not much. Not much at all. 

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

PID Analyzers and the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society will used the Happy Atoms kit so kids can build their own molecules,  demonstrate how PID Analyzers are used for quality control measurements of VOC’s in common foods like cereals/drinks, and hosted a student run (grades 5 and 7) “ultimate slime station”. New handouts include activities to do at home and resources for homeschoolers. 

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

Photo by J.L. Maclachlan

The cafe part of the science cafe! The mess hall cooks mades these delicious cookies and kept the trays full for three hours! Hot chocolate and fresh pressed cider not pictured.

Wicked Cool STEM Cafe organizers Jennifer Maclachlan and Jack Driscoll. 

Photo above L to R: Paula Hersey interviewing Jennifer Maclachlan and Jack Driscoll before STEM Journey II. Watch the interview here: http://74.92.45.225/vod/13357-eSteamers_-_Episode_1_-_Science_and_Scouts_1-Medium.mp4

History

The third STEM Journey event consists of the following: enthusiastic volunteers, keynote speakers, hands on science demonstrations and earning scouting badges.

Our first event was on: March 29, 2014: Space Lab to Zero G” and we attracted more than 750 people (http://www.nesacs.org/pub_nucleus/2014/Dec14.pdf)  .  The second event on March 28, 2015 was on Oceanography- Great White Sharks to Deep Ocean Exploration. It is described in (http://nesacs.org/section_act/STEM/2015/STEMJourneyII_715a.pdf).   This is a free event at Cape Cod Community College. In 2015, we had more than 1100 visitors, 100 volunteers, 30 organizations and 500 people who signed up to listen to our keynote speakers.  All of this on a snowy day in March. This event was described in the Dec. 2015 issue of the Nucleus.  http://nesacs.org/pub_nucleus/2015/Dec15NUCLEUS.pdf .

We did get TV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeLRGsB7xYU ), radio and Cape Cod Times coverage for this event (http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150329/NEWS/150329409/0/SEARCH ) which is the largest STEM event on the south Shore.

Next year (April 2, 2016), our theme will be Transportation and the title is “STEM Journey III: Transportation: Air, Ground and Sea”. One of our Keynote speakers will be discussing Autonomous Vehicles. We do expect to have 50 organizations, 150 volunteers and 1,500 visitors on April 2, 2016.

 Mission Statement

The STEM Journey program was organized in 2014 by the Cape Cod Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society and Cape Cod Community College to provide a stimulus and introduction to the sciences for K-12 students from the Cape and Islands. We feel that the US needs to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to remain competitive with the rest of the world. This will not be truly effective unless we inspire young students through programs like STEM Journey.

.Organizers

Cape  and Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America

Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society

Cape Cod Community College

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Join us Saturday for Cape Cod Celebrates National Chemistry Week at the Wicked Cool Autumn Welcome Cape Cod Science Cafe hosted by the Cape & Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America at Camp Greenough, Yarmouthport, MA from 1pm-5pm October 24, 2015.

The theme of the 2015 National Chemistry Week is Chemistry Colors Our World. At the Cape Cod Science Cafe we’ll have Cambridge Science Festival’s Science on the Street, the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society, PID Analyzers, LLC and Cape Cod Community College performing color chemistry demonstrations and providing interactive hands-on experiments related to the color theme.