Science doesn’t stop in Maine: MSF partners help us keep the focus on science year-round. See what’s happening near you this month and remember that #scienceiseverywhere.
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Grants to Fuel Ingenuity in Maine: MTI offers early stage grants to entrepreneurs and companies who are developing innovative products, processes or services. TechStart Grants of up to $5,000 can be used to conduct market research, develop a business plan, and file for patent protections. Seed Grants of up to $25,000 can be used to develop a prototype, demonstrate proof of concept, and conduct field trials. MTI is holding workshops Portland and Bangor, and a webinar for inventors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, anyone who wants to know about early-stage funding programs and resources available for innovative technology-based ideas!
Portland Workshop October 4, 12:00 – 2:00pm
Bangor Workshop October 5, 12:00 – 2:00pm
Webinar October 11, 2:00 – 3:30pm
MTAF 2.0 Workshops: The Maine Technology Asset Fund 2.0 provides challenge grants for infrastructure, equipment and technology upgrades for research, development and commercialization. The projects that are selected will be those that lead applicants to hold and gain market share, increase revenues, expand employment or retain jobs. Come learn about this opportunity and about the Lightning Rounds being held this Autumn. All workshops are open to the public, free of charge, but require registration.
Public Workshops/Potential Applicants. This workshop is geared to potential applicants to clarify purpose of the Program and help applicants to assess whether they might choose to apply for the Lightning Rounds.
October 2, 3-4:00pm Farmington October 3, 2-3:00pm Belfast October 3, 10-11:00am Portland October 5, 1-2:00pm Portland October 6, 10:00am – 12:00pm Caribou. Contact Dana Delano, (207)521-1713 or email at ddelano@nmdc.org October 11, 3-4:00 PM Fairfield
Workshops for Service Providers/Business Counselors and others who work with potential applicants. This workshop is geared towards service providers, business counselors and others who assist clients with business planning, expansion and success.
October 2, 2-3:00pm Farmington October 3, 1-2:00pm Belfast October 5, 12-1:00pm Portland October 11, 2-3:00pm Fairfield
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October 2-6: Digital Humanities Week: STEM to STEAM at the University of Maine. What relevance do the arts and humanities play in a world whose swift transformation seems increasingly driven by science and technology? That’s the theme of this year’s Digital Humanities Week, a conference at the University of Maine during the first week of October whose events range from formal presentations by extraordinary speakers to ad hoc hackathons run by students. This year, speakers from MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth, UCLA, and the University of Texas–as well as other UMaine campuses and Bowdoin and Colby colleges–will demonstrate or examine art-science collaborations that have produced groundbreaking scientific discoveries, from the use of DNA to store cultural data (the Library of Congress fits in a test tube) to audio microscopes (each microbe has its own signature sound). Other demonstrations include creating “Hypercities” by superimposing layers of historical data on an urban map; using a planetarium dome for data visualization or 3d sound; and building virtual museums to document local economies (“Blueberries, Clams, and Beer”).
University of Maine, Orono
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October 6, 2:00 – 7:00pm: BIOME 2017 Annual Conference: Next Steps in Bioscience. The theme of this year’s conference is “Next Steps in Bioscience” and we will focus both on the State of Maine and the global perspective. This will be a half a day afternoon/evening event. Put it on your calendar today!
University of New England College of Pharmacy, 716 Stevens Ave, Portland
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October 5, 5:00-6:30pm: Family Science Night Solar System Walk. In celebration of World Space Week, bring the kids and walk your way through the solar system along Bangor’s waterfront! Join as for an evening filled with great activities for all ages! Penobscot Valley Stargazers and Darling’s Ice Cream Truck will add to the fun! Rain date: October 6.
Bangor Waterfront
October 25 – November 15, Wednesdays 3:30-4:30pm: Challenger Afterschool LEGO club combines the excitement of LEGO creation with engineering fun, including the use of Challenger’s LEGO WeDo Engineering kits to build and program LEGO robots! Open to new and returning students; four week session. $60, grades 2-5
Challenger Learning Center of Maine, 30 Venture Way, Bangor
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October 5, 7:00pm: Science Lecture Series. Dr. Michaela Regan from the Maine Medical Center Research Institute and Tufts Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and the University of Maine will talk about Potential Cancer Cures Leveraging 3D Tissue Engineering and Bone Marrow Models. Michaela will explore new ways to develop 3D models of cancer and bone marrow cells, show how fluorescent imaging of cells and biomaterials can bring biomedical research to life, and provide confocal microscopy images of 3D silk scaffolds supporting bone marrow adipose tissue and cancer cells. Get a better sense of how cells look and act in 3D. Learn about the types of relationships cells have in the bone marrow and how researchers are leveraging these to design new ways of stopping cancer growth.
Regular public programs are available on Friday evenings at 7pm (Mystery of the Unseen World) and Sunday afternoons at 2pm (Legends of the Night Sky: Perseus and Andromeda). More information https://astro.umaine.edu/events/
Tickets for planetarium programs are $6 for Adults, $5 for UMaine Students/Veterans/Senior Citizens, and $4 for children under 12. More information and tickets: https://astro.umaine.edu/
Emera Astronomy Center, 167 Rangeley Road, University of Maine
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October 5, 3:00 – 7:00pm: You’re invited to our Open House! Stop by and learn more about the research at MMCRI in Cancer Biology, Stem Cell Biology, Bone, Metabolic, Cardiovascular, Kidney, and Vector–Borne diseases. Meet the researchers, take a tour of the Institute, see science demonstrations, and explore education opportunities. If you’re able, please stay for our presentation, during which time Don St. Germain, MD, Director & VP Research, will give an overview of MMCRI and introduce speakers to highlight the work done in the Summer Student Research Program.
81 Research Drive, Scarborough
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October 6, 7:00pm: Lost to the Sea: Maine’s Ancient Coastal Heritage. Currently, Maine is losing an important cultural and paleoenvironmental record as virtually all of the State’s 2,000+ shell middens are eroded by climate-change induced sea level rise. Composed largely of clam and oyster shells, these features also contain artifacts and faunal remains that record up to 5,000 years of past lifeways and environmental data for the coastal Gulf of Maine. With each storm, more is lost to the waves. Alice Kelley, Climate Change institute, University of Maine will discuss a Maine Sea Grant funded project that is looking at ways to rapidly assess the condition of existing middens and develop strategies to monitor and rescue erosion loss of these important archives of the past.
Moore Auditorium, Schoodic Institute campus.
October 19, 12pm: Brown Bag: Standardized testing – For Trees! Uncovering the Future Forest. Join Schoodic Institute Forest Ecology Director, Nick Fisichelli, as he discusses ongoing research examining the nature and dynamics of our forests – from trees to weeds to worms!
Moore Auditorium, Schoodic Institute campus.
October 28, 1:00 – 4:30pm: Eeek of Ecology Halloween Festival. Join Schoodic Institute and Acadia National Park partners for the fifth annual Eeek of Ecology Festival. No registration required. For children ages 12 and under, with an adult. This year, we will offer children the opportunity to trick or treat amongst 20+ science and history stations related to a diverse array of animals, plants, and geologic features found in Acadia.
Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, Acadia Drive, Winter Harbor
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October 15, 1:00pm – 2:00pm: Join us to see the winning entries from the 2017 MSF Films contest (along with some notable mentions) and learn about how to submit for the 2018 competition!
Maine Discovery Museum, 74 Main Street, Bangor
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October 7, 11:00am-12:00pm: Mad Science of Maine presents Spooktacular…A Halloween Science Show. A thrilling look into the secret world of a Mad Scientist’s Laboratory. Come see what’s cooking in the Lab. Be prepared to be SPOOKED!!
Ages 4-12
Bangor Public l Library, 145 Harlow Street, Bangor
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Robot Workshops: For teachers and parents: come and learn how to build and program robots using the Lego® Mindstorms robot kits. These are simple and robust machines that can be used for any number of different projects!
October 5, 9:00am – 3:30pm, Maine Discovery Museum, 74 Main Street, Bangor
October 12, 3:00 – 8:00pm, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 28 Center Street Machias
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October 21, 11:00am – 12:30pm: Family Science Saturday: Slime Lab. Join us every 3rd Saturday for a special science workshop for families: Children age 6+ and adults can experience amazing science together with hands-on projects and experiments. This October we invite you to explore the amazing science behind ooey, gooey, oozy slime. Create different kinds of slime with science tools and science methods. Learn, explore, and have fun together as a family.
For children 6 and older with adults. $5 materials fee (for up to two children). The materials fee does not include admission to the museum, children can share working on a project. Purchase tickets at the front desk
Maine Discovery Museum, 74 Main Street, Bangor
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October 16, 3:00 – 4:00pm: The Politics of a Sustainable Coast: Money, Science, Democracy, and Climate in Southeastern Louisiana. Michael Haedicke, Associate Professor of Sociology, Drake University. Michael will talk about Louisiana’s Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, an ambitious effort to increase the region’s resilience in the face of change through large-scale restoration of coastal wetlands. Co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center
October 23, 3:00 – 4:00pm: Build it and they will come. Tony Grassi, entrepreneur, business owner. Tony will talk about sustainability in practice as he and his wife Sally rehabilitated an old mill in Freedom Maine, restored hydropower at the old dam and helped in the revitalization of the Village of Freedom. His talk will include the complications, pitfalls and rewards of investing in sustainability.
October 30, 3:00 – 4:00pm: The Puzzle of Making the Local Food Movement Sustainable: The Challenge of the Supply Chain. Some of the most important questions facing the local food movement in Maine relate to sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. One solution has been to promote a farm-to-institution (F2I) movement whereby farmers sell their produce to local institutions such as universities and hospitals, and reduce environmental costs and enhance economic and social benefits through these local supply chains. The University of Maine Food to Institution Team: Mark Haggerty, Linda Silka, Stephanie Welcomer, Melissa Ladenheim and Michaela Murray will talk about F2I broadly and what their research indicates are the challenges as well as some of the solutions to participating in and promoting F2I initiatives.
107 Norman Smith Hall, Mitchell Center – University of Maine
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October 28, 11:00am – 3:00pm: UMaine 4H Saturdays, Where There’s Smoke, There’s Chicken. Learn how to prepare delicious smoked chicken with our own Dr. Colt Knight! First, we will learn the art of preparing a whole chicken, and learn about how to safely handle raw chicken meat. We will explore how to include chicken as part of a healthy, balanced diet, as well as talk about different ways to season and prepare chicken meat. And finally, we will be enjoying our smoked chicken for lunch.Open to grades 9-12; maximum number of participants: 20; minimum number of participants: 8
$10, includes lunch. Register Online; registration deadline: October 20, 2017
Witter Farm, University of Maine, Orono