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Science in the City

Location

City Hall
2nd Floor Sullivan Chamber
795 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139

Get directions

Contact

Jennifer Lawrence
jlawrence@cambridgema.gov
617-349-4671

Description

Calendar event image

Join City of Cambridge departments and commissions as we take over City Hall for a day! Come by 795 Mass Ave after-hours on Friday, April 20 to learn, design, and create. All participants in one of our TWO scavenger hunts will win prizes.  One lucky adult participant will win a Fitbit!

Activities

All activities take place on the first and second floors of City Hall!

LED Lightbulb Swap Event

Bring your old incandescent or CFL lightbulbs and walk away with LED lightbulbs, which are more efficient! The swap is free and open to all Cambridge residents. The event will offer standard A19 LEDs, which fit most lamps and fixtures, and BR30 LEDs, typically used for recessed lighting. Exchanges are limited to 3 bulbs per household to ensure supply for all participants.

LED Swap Picture with staff
 

Urban Cycling Basics Workshops!

1:00 - 2:00 PM
2:00 - 3:00 PM

* Finding the right kind of bike
* Route planning
* Safety equipment, including lights and a helmet
* Locking properly
* Transporting small loads or children by bike
* Multi-modal commuting
* Rules of the road and safety tips.

All participants in the bike workshops get a free helmet!

Registration is not required by helpful. Please email jlawrence@cambridgema.gov to register.

Bike Training

Cambridge Energy Alliance

Come see energy turn into action with a bike light machine and learn what solar power might look like on your home.

Solar home

CDD Housing Division

Build a City Block! What does residential density look like? Want to see more affordable housing in Cambridge? Using an interactive game called Cambridge Streets, participants can design a city block to visualize different considerations and trade-offs when building different types of housing, creating open space and transportation options for all users.

165 Western Ave

Cambridge GIS

Create a Cambridge Map
Cambridge Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will provide the map layers and you use them to make a map of Cambridge. Learn how simple data can be combined to make a map showing neighborhoods, parks, water bodies, and more!

Parks Map  

Water Department

Have a fresh pour of Fresh Pond!
Did you know that Cambridge has a reservoir and waterworks system separate from Greater Boston? Find out what it takes to protect the reservoir and how we go from natural water to high-quality drinking water with the Cambridge Water Department.

Fresh Pond Reservoir viewed from atop the Water Purification Facility.

Mystic River Watershed Association

Why does the Cambridge DPW perform all of this work to improve water quality?
Learn about the water quality and amazing fish migration happening in local waterways. The Mystic River Watershed Association is managing a citizen science effort to document the largest river herring migration in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Come to our table and be a part of this effort to document, measure, analyze and better understand this local fish migration. Promise you will be amazed.

 Mystic herring

Department of Public Works & Conservation Commission

We all live in a watershed!
Do you know your watershed? Learn where rain goes after it rains and how you can help it get back to its roots and stay clean along the way. 
Watershed Location MA

Traffic, Parking and Transportation

The Science of Traffic Signals
TP&T will discuss and present Synchro, a modelling software used to design signal timing and phasing. Put in your own ideas and see how signals, cycle lengths, and the Flash Don’t Walk time for pedestrians change based on your input. Ever wondered what those green pavement markings are? We’ll tell you all about it! Finally, learn about Vision Zero and how you can do your part.

Want to hear your voice the next time you walk through the crosswalk? Stop by as we raffle off the recording for an Accessible Pedestrian Signal!
Countdown Pedestrian Signal

Cambridge Recycling Division

Your Lunch: Hot Air or Clean Power?
Trash or compost? A choice that seals a leftover’s destiny. Find out what happens to the methane gas food emits when it is trapped in a landfill versus when it is captured in an anaerobic digester.
Resident dropping off food scraps at Recycling Center.

Environmental and Transportation Planning Division

Glocal Challenge!
Come and listen to our youth entrepreneurs and interns pitch their ideas for how to improve the transportation system in Cambridge. Give them your feedback, ideas, and innovations and help them towards implementation of the transportation projects this summer 2018.

 Glocal Cover Photo

Cambridge Sustainability Dashboard!

Join us for a fun scavenger hunt and learn all about sustainability data in Cambridge!

Clean Energy

Cambridge Public Library

Exploring Virtual Reality with the Cambridge Public Library
Come learn about Virtual Reality and 3D technology with librarians from the Cambridge Public Library!

 

Cambridge Open Data

Embark on a data scavenger hunt!
Data informs nearly everything we do in the City of Cambridge. Join us for a scavenger hunt through Cambridge's open data portal. Learn how to find data about the environment, traffic, housing, and all the other topics at the science fair!

Cambridge ITD server rework photo

Public Safety (Police, 911, Fire, Pro EMS, Animal Control)

Emergency Phone Call “Ride Along”
Come along with us as we follow a call from the time it comes into the Emergency Communications Center to the time it is dispatched. Watch in real time and see what the outcome could be!

Fire and Ambulance

Lectures

All lectures take place in the Sullivan Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

Urban Rain Gardens

12:00 – 1:00 PM
New England Wild Flower Society & Conservation Commission
Anna Fialkoff, Horticulturist

By cleaning, cooling, and slowing runoff before it pollutes water bodies, rain gardens can play a significant role in urban and suburban areas. Learn how rain gardens work, how you can create low-tech and effective rain gardens, and which durable plants can fill them.

DPW rain garden

Home Performance Workshop

1:00 – 1:15 PM

Cambridge Energy Alliance

Learn how to make your winters warmer, your summers cooler, and your energy bills lower! Find out what a home energy assessment could do for you. Q&A session to follow outside of the Chambers.

CEA Logo

Public Safety Q&A

1:15 - 1:45 PM

Join the Cambridge Public Safety Team and get your safety questions answered!

CPD Badge and Patch

Solar Workshop

1:45 – 2:00 PM

Cambridge Energy Alliance

Learn how to save money and energy by going solar in Cambridge and beyond. Q&A session to follow outside of the Chambers.

CEA Logo

Composting in Cambridge

2:00 – 2:30 PM
Department of Public Works Recycling Division

In 2014, Cambridge launched curbside composting for the Monday trash and recycling collection route. During the pilot program, we collected over 800 tons of food scraps! We are excited to bring curbside composting citywide in April as we work together to reach our goal of reducing trash 30% by 2020. Recycling Director, Michael Orr, will talk about how curbside composting developed in Cambridge, how the program works, and how our food scraps are no longer emitting greenhouse gases in landfills but instead creating clean energy and fertilizer!


12-gal bin on curb

Get Rid of it Right!

2:30 – 3:00 PM
Department of Public Works Recycling Division

The new “Get Rid of It Right” Tool, featured on the Department of Public Works’ Recycling Division website at www.CambridgeMA.gov/Recycle, is a quick and easy way to determine how to get rid of unwanted items in your home.

Cambridge Recycling logo

Learn more about the Cambridge Science Festival here: www.CambridgeScienceFestival.org


Page was posted on 2/12/2018 7:24 PM
Page was last modified on 7/24/2023 10:49 PM
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