The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Announces Nantucket Science Festival Saturday, March 16

JGurley • March 6, 2024

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces its 10th annual Nantucket Science Festival (AckSciFest) to be held March 16, 2024, in collaboration with over fifteen Nantucket community partner organizations. The MMA will host its FREE STEAM-inspired day of hands-on learning and exploration on Saturday, March 16 from 10:30am – 2pm, with the addition of a designated sensory friendly hour, for diverse families, starting at 9:30am. Since its inception in 2015, the MMA and its community partners have collaborated to inspire the next generation of inventors, innovators, and dreamers.


This year’s theme focuses on “Cultivating Curiosity” and a mission to expose the Nantucket community to intersectional STEAM experiences. This event exemplifies the MMA’s mission of creating opportunities for all to develop a life-long passion for science through education, research, and first-hand exploration of the land, sea, and sky of Nantucket Island. This festival has become the largest late winter/pre-spring event and over fifteen organizations are joining to host tables and share unique hands-on activities again this year!


In 2024, one way the Festival will reinforce the cultivation of curiosity is by collaborating with a diverse portfolio of community partners to demonstrate the diversity of STEAM. “We are thrilled to return for yet another year with a robust festival offering,” said Jónelle Gurley, coordinator of AckSciFest and Director of Science and Programs at the MMA. “The number of community collaborators this year exceeds what we had in the last few years, and we are excited to partner with new collaborators like S.T.A.R. Nantucket, the Nantucket Fire department, the Artists Association of Nantucket, and Nantucket Lights.”


This year’s community partner organizations include: the Artists Association of Nantucket, Egan Maritime Institute, Girl Scouts - Nantucket, Linda Loring Nature Foundation, Mass Audubon, Nantucket Chamber of Commerce, Nantucket Community School, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket Land and Water Council, Nantucket Lights, Nantucket New School, Nantucket Shellfish Association, Oika, UMASS Boston Field Station, The Trustees of Reservations Nantucket, Nantucket S.T.A.R, and Sustainable Nantucket.  All will be highlighting the incredible opportunities to get, and stay, curious about STEAM on Nantucket.


This event is completely FREE of charge and takes place at the Nantucket High School Gymnasium. Attendees will be able to participate in a range of hands-on activities and experiences. There will be a marine mobile touch tank and oyster filtration activity, a climate and weather monitoring station a marine mysteries activity, an owl pellet identification, sensory crafts, general chemistry and astronomy related activities, and engineering and space exploration fun. The Nantucket Science Festival is made possible thanks to the generosity of its volunteers, partner organizations, and generous sponsors.


ABOUT THE NANTUCKET SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Founded in 2015, the Nantucket Science Festival is a mid-March collaborative community event, featuring hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics activities. It is an initiative of the Maria Mitchell Association in partnership with various Nantucket non-profit organizations, schools, and businesses. For more information, please visit https://www.mariamitchell.org/nantucket-science-festival

ABOUT MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION


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.


                                   ###

For Immediate Release

March 6, 2024

Contact: Jonelle Gurley

jgurley@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

The Birth of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: Celebrating Over 100 Years of Discovery

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF

Putting Things By

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 23, 2025
An older term, that we seem to not use that much anymore but maybe that’s in part because not many people “put things by” anymore. It is having a bit of a resurgence as people try to return to the garden and focus on local produce. My in-laws used to spend a lot of time – before I knew them – canning and preserving many different things – from jellies to string beans that became “dilly beans.” I, on the other hand, do not can produce. Frankly, I fear messing up the process and making my family sick. So, for now, I stick to making refrigerator jams and pickles. I have made some chive vinegar – that is frankly, amazing, and a brilliant shade of pink! But in any case, Bartlett’s Farm opened for pick-your-own strawberries on June 7 and I made my way over on June 8. My son has been asking for strawberry jam since about February – I told him I wait for fresh and local but he wanted some so badly he was begging for store bought. I almost caved but then I told him – out of season and they taste like cardboard – and also made a LONG journey to get to us. Once people ate with the seasons – now we do not have to with trains, planes, and ships crossing all over. It is also, why, oftentimes, fruit has no flavor. Produce is picked often before it ripens and “ripens” as it ships – or with sprays – and since many varieties have been crossed with others or engineered, we have lost the taste. I remember tasting a peach a few years back from North Carolina – fresh off the tree. After rubbing it to get all the “fur” off, I bit into an exquisite peach that tasted like a peach of my youth. So, Maria was not eating a strawberry in January but she was eating them in June – local and full of flavor. And likely, putting some by as well. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 16, 2025
June 1851 My Dear Sister . . . . Mrs. Dassel has painted me kneeling at my telescope. It looks like Adeline Coffin and is of course not handsome. If thee was here thee would have Mitchell’s {William Mitchell Barney, son of Sally and Matthew Barney} painted at once. She has a head of a child N. P. Willis that is very lovely. She has taken a room at the Atheneum and put up about a dozen pictures – very beautiful – Isabel is lovely. She has not tried to make a portrait, but a very pretty picture . . . . She is now engaged on Abra’m Quary – he is much flattered by it and it will be a fine portrait. I think we shall buy it or a copy for the Atheneum . . . . She will paint father also for herself – having made a pencil sketch . . . .We like her very much . . . . The above is from a letter sent by Maria Mitchell to her eldest sister, Sally Mitchell Barney. In it, Maria details what everyone in the Mitchell family is up to. She includes some details about Herminia B. Dassel, an artist who came to Nantucket to paint the last Native Americans and also took an interest in the famous Mitchell family. This was of course four years after Maria’s discovery of the comet. At the time of this letter, Maria was still the librarian for the Atheneum and the portrait of Quary that she mentions possibly buying for the Atheneum, she did buy as it hangs in the Atheneum by the front door today. Another Dassel portrait of Quary is in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association and the portrait of Isabel Draper is currently on display at the NHA’s Whaling Museum – on loan from a museum in Rhode Island. The portrait Maria states she posed for at the start of the letter is in the collection of the MMA. It was given to us in the early 1990s by Sally’s great granddaughter – the granddaughter of Mitchell whom she mentions above as well. Maria and Dassel would become good friends – Maria was named the godmother of Dassel’s daughter. And the sketch of William made by Dassel that Maria states would become a portrait? It likely did come to fruition. It made its way down a side of the family but was unfortunately lost, likely sold as part of a family estate though we do have a photograph of it and one can tell it is the brush work of Dassel. JNLF
Show More