7th Annual Nantucket Science Festival

Website Editor • March 5, 2021

Nantucket, MA – The Nantucket Science Festival is back for another exciting year. From March 13 – March 20, join the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) and the Nantucket Community School (NCS) for a week-long celebration of all things STEAM. The Nantucket Science Festival aims to connect people with their inner scientist by providing fun, interactive activities designed to engage people of all ages, opportunities to learn about science-based organizations on the island, and by giving participants ideas and materials to continue science activities at home. This event is completely free-of-charge and has grown to be the largest mid-winter event for the community. Like 2020, we are planning a COVID-safe version of this event, complete with take-home activity kits, online science demonstrations, video contests, and more!


Kim Botelho, the MMA’s Director of Education, states, “This is one of our favorite events of the year! It is so rewarding to see families excited to learn science together. It also feels wonderful to be part of an event that has so much community support and impact.”


For the full schedule of events, please continue checking our website for updates and follow us on Facebook (Maria Mitchell Association, Nantucket Community School, Nantucket Community School Early Childhood) or Instagram (@maria_mitchell_association, @nantucketcommunityschool @ncsearlychildhood). Use the hashtag #ACKSciFest or tag us to be featured in our stories and on our website!


Pauline Cronin, the Early Childhood Education Coordinator at the NCS, said, “Each year Nantucket Community School looks forward to this opportunity to bring all ages together to strengthen, connect, and engage our community and to participate in science together in collaboration with the Maria Mitchell Association.” Beginning on March 8, the NCS is launching a Scavenger Hunt activity to lead up to the Nantucket Science Festival. Visit the Nantucket Community School Early Childhood Facebook page for more information and to participate.


The Nantucket Science Festival is made possible with thanks to the generosity of our partners, volunteers, and sponsors. We would like to give a huge thank you to the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, Nantucket Land Council, the National Informal STEM Education Network, Dr. & Mrs. David and Beverly Barlow, the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, the Nantucket Atheneum, and UMass Boston's Nantucket Field Station.

 

The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization. Founded in 1902, the MMA works to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.

 

Nantucket Community School is a community organization that provides a diverse level of high-quality, affordable programs, encourages life-long personal growth and reaches out to all members of the community; spanning every age and stage. For more information on the Nantucket Community School’s offerings, please visit http://www.nantucketcommunityschool.org/ 

For Immediate Release

March 5, 2021

Contact: Kelly Bernatzky, MMA Development Associate

kbernatzky@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF
Show More