STEM Immersion: Boston Tour 2022
NSHSS members gathered in Boston in 2022 to explore their STEM passions and gain hands-on experience in real-world labs during a five-day STEM Immersion tour!
During this tour, students focused on a variety of STEM-related activities, including spending time in a real, working lab, taking a guided tour of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), participating in multiple STEM workshops and labs, visiting the Museum of Science and Harvard Natural History Museum, and taking part in fun team building activities to make friendships that will last a lifetime!
See the full itinerary recap below for more details!
STEM Immersion: Boston 2022
June 18-22
Pictures from the tour!
Welcome to Boston!
First stop on all of our Boston arrival tours is a huge market perfect for souvenirs, Faneuil Hall! The Sam Adams statue stands tall in front and marks a great meeting point for our tour. Quincy Market is just behind Faneuil Hall and is filled with food stalls offering multiple different local options for dinner on arrival day. This statue is along the Freedom trail and marked the start of our afternoon sightseeing tour! For an inside look at all of the cool Boston sightseeing we did on the tour, check out the STEM Tour highlight reel on the NSHSS Instagram!
USS Constitution
Early tour arrivals followed the Freedom Trail and had a chance to board and explore "Old Ironsides," the historical war ship that is still in commission!
Paul Revere
A historic statue commemorating Paul Revere with the Old North Church behind him in which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent!
USS Constitution
What a great view of Boston from the Boston Harbor!
Duck Boat Tour
When the Duck Boat drove into the river and turned our bus tour into a boat tour, several tour participants actually got a change to drive the boat!
Harvard University
A chilly morning in Cambridge visiting Harvard University!
Harvard Museum of Natural History
A morning visit to the Harvard Museum of Natural History where students had free time to explore the endless number of life science exhibits!
Harvard Museum of Natural History
This room had every animal you could ever think of!
Harvard Museum of Natural History
An entire room wall-to-wall of geology! Every element of the periodic table and so many different gems and minerals from around the world!
Museum of Science
Students had free time to explore all of the interactive exhibits in Boston's Museum of Science!
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
The Sun! There was a huge planetarium to explore!
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
There were so many awesome exhibits to explore!
Views on our Ghost Tour
Granary Burying ground is the site of many historical graves like Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and more!
Massachusetts State House
While taking a ghost tour can certainly be spooky, the guide offered tons of historical facts and stories about landmarks we passed in Boston as well!
Lexington & Concord
A quick morning walk on the way to our first STEM workshop! We visited the site of the start of the Revolutionary War and walked along Battle Road to see Paul Revere's capture point and some old homesteads!
Charles River Esplanade
After our first STEM workshop, students had some time to walk around the Charles River Esplanade and watch the windsurfers in the river!
Charles River Esplanade
What a beautiful day in Boston to walk around the esplanade! Laura hosted our social media takeover for the tour, so be sure to check out all of her behind the scenes tour pics and videos on the STEM tour highlight reel on the NSHSS Instagram!
Boch Center
Before our STEM workshop inside the Boch Center, we were able to tour the famous Wang Theater and even go backstage!
Boch Center
Students broke into groups to compete in a sound wave activity on the theater stage!
Boch Center
Taking a group pic on the stage! What a cool place to have all to ourselves!
Boston Views!
We were able to go up to a 14th floor observation deck and take in the views of Boston and the Charles river before heading off to dinner and gaming at Bada Borg!
FIRST Robotics Workshop
Students had a chance to interact with several robots at MassRobotics!
FIRST Robotics Workshop
Teams worked together to assemble and program robots before testing them out!
FIRST Robotics Workshop
Robotics in action! Students gave the robots a series of commands until ultimately they could battle it out with a ball!
MIT Tour
We took a tour of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and made sure to stop for some souvenirs before heading to our lab on the MIT campus!
Koch Center for Integrated Cancer Research
Students went inside the Koch Center for Integrated Cancer Research at MIT for a lesson on the center's research before participating in an experiment and visiting a real working lab!
Waterworks Museum
We visited the Boston Waterworks Museum to explore old water pumping machinery and learn about all of the technological advancements over the years!
Waterworks Museum
Students broke into small groups to put together their own water pumping systems!
Waterworks Museum
Check out the water pump in action!
Goodbye Boston!
It was such a fun tour and a cool city to explore for the week!
Welcome to Boston!
First stop on all of our Boston arrival tours is a huge market perfect for souvenirs, Faneuil Hall! The Sam Adams statue stands tall in front and marks a great meeting point for our tour. Quincy Market is just behind Faneuil Hall and is filled with food stalls offering multiple different local options for dinner on arrival day. This statue is along the Freedom trail and marked the start of our afternoon sightseeing tour! For an inside look at all of the cool Boston sightseeing we did on the tour, check out the STEM Tour highlight reel on the NSHSS Instagram!
USS Constitution
Early tour arrivals followed the Freedom Trail and had a chance to board and explore "Old Ironsides," the historical war ship that is still in commission!
Paul Revere
A historic statue commemorating Paul Revere with the Old North Church behind him in which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent!
USS Constitution
What a great view of Boston from the Boston Harbor!
Duck Boat Tour
When the Duck Boat drove into the river and turned our bus tour into a boat tour, several tour participants actually got a change to drive the boat!
Harvard University
A chilly morning in Cambridge visiting Harvard University!
Harvard Museum of Natural History
A morning visit to the Harvard Museum of Natural History where students had free time to explore the endless number of life science exhibits!
Harvard Museum of Natural History
This room had every animal you could ever think of!
Harvard Museum of Natural History
An entire room wall-to-wall of geology! Every element of the periodic table and so many different gems and minerals from around the world!
Museum of Science
Students had free time to explore all of the interactive exhibits in Boston's Museum of Science!
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
The Sun! There was a huge planetarium to explore!
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
Museum of Science
There were so many awesome exhibits to explore!
Views on our Ghost Tour
Granary Burying ground is the site of many historical graves like Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and more!
Massachusetts State House
While taking a ghost tour can certainly be spooky, the guide offered tons of historical facts and stories about landmarks we passed in Boston as well!
Lexington & Concord
A quick morning walk on the way to our first STEM workshop! We visited the site of the start of the Revolutionary War and walked along Battle Road to see Paul Revere's capture point and some old homesteads!
Charles River Esplanade
After our first STEM workshop, students had some time to walk around the Charles River Esplanade and watch the windsurfers in the river!
Charles River Esplanade
What a beautiful day in Boston to walk around the esplanade! Laura hosted our social media takeover for the tour, so be sure to check out all of her behind the scenes tour pics and videos on the STEM tour highlight reel on the NSHSS Instagram!
Boch Center
Before our STEM workshop inside the Boch Center, we were able to tour the famous Wang Theater and even go backstage!
Boch Center
Students broke into groups to compete in a sound wave activity on the theater stage!
Boch Center
Taking a group pic on the stage! What a cool place to have all to ourselves!
Boston Views!
We were able to go up to a 14th floor observation deck and take in the views of Boston and the Charles river before heading off to dinner and gaming at Bada Borg!
FIRST Robotics Workshop
Students had a chance to interact with several robots at MassRobotics!
FIRST Robotics Workshop
Teams worked together to assemble and program robots before testing them out!
FIRST Robotics Workshop
Robotics in action! Students gave the robots a series of commands until ultimately they could battle it out with a ball!
MIT Tour
We took a tour of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and made sure to stop for some souvenirs before heading to our lab on the MIT campus!
Koch Center for Integrated Cancer Research
Students went inside the Koch Center for Integrated Cancer Research at MIT for a lesson on the center's research before participating in an experiment and visiting a real working lab!
Waterworks Museum
We visited the Boston Waterworks Museum to explore old water pumping machinery and learn about all of the technological advancements over the years!
Waterworks Museum
Students broke into small groups to put together their own water pumping systems!
Waterworks Museum
Check out the water pump in action!
Goodbye Boston!
It was such a fun tour and a cool city to explore for the week!
See More On Instagram
For an inside look at everything they experienced during the tour, check out the STEM Tour Highlight Reel on the NSHSS Instagram!
Itinerary Recap
June 18
Meet NSHSS and EF Tours Staff at Boston Logan International Airport
Travelers on this tour met up in Boston and began some Boston sightseeing!
Walking Tour of Boston
While for all of the tour participants to arrive, our tour director led us on a historical sightseeing journey through Boston! We walked the freedom trail, visited the USS Constitution, Boston Massacre site, New England Holocaust Memorial, Paul Revere's house, Granary historic graveyard, and more!
Duck Boat tour
Students enjoyed Boston views on a guided bus tour that also turned into a boat and took us into the river!
Dinner at Quincy Market
Interchangeably referred to as Faneuil Hall or Quincy Market, here, students were allowed to pick their own eatery and grab their first meal in Boston and snag some souvenirs.
June 19
Take a guided tour of the Harvard University
As a last minute add on, tour participants got to take a tour of Harvard and explore Harvard Square!
Visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Self-guided visit to the museum with everything from dinosaur bones, geology displays with every element on the periodic table, rooms of life sciences exhibits of countless life-size animals and birds, archeological finds, and so much more!
Visit the Museum of Science
Self-guided visit to the museum where some activities couple with a STEM presentation conducted by museum scientists; there was plenty of time for students to explore the endless exhibits in the museum on their own!
Dinner at Maggiano's
Ended the first full tour day with some much needed pasta!
Enjoy an evening activity
Students got another POV of Boston with a historical ghost tour!
June 20
Enjoy a New England ecosystem activity
We took a quick stop in Lexington & Concord to visit the start of the Revolutionary War and take a morning walk around some of the historical monuments and artifacts!
Participate in a STEM Workshop
Video game production workshop at Empow studios with a boxed lunch included!
Participate in a STEAM workshop at the Boch Center
Students toured the historic Wang Theater and participated in a soundwave activity
Hone your puzzle-solving skills at Boda Borg
An escape room with a Swedish twist! Students divided into teams of three+ and solved a dozen different "quests", each consisting of three to four interconnected puzzle rooms.
June 21
Participate in a hands-on workshop developed by FIRST Robotics
FIRST, For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology, hosts one of the largest student robotics competitions in the world. Students participated in a half-day robotics workshop facilitated by MassRobotics where they worked in teams to learn how to program a robot and tested their programming by block coding the robot to complete a maze.
Take a guided tour of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Students toured MIT's campus while learning about the history of the university and campus life with an MIT student tour guide.
Visit a working lab
Tour participants began to conceptualize what real research science looks like when visiting and hearing from real scientists at a working lab. Students participated in a STEM activity at the Koch Center for Integrated Cancer Research at MIT before touring the working lab!
Enjoy an evening activity
Old fashioned candlepin bowling at Sunnyside Bowladrome!
June 22
Participate in a STEM workshop
Students visited the Waterworks Museum for a tour of the historical facility and took part in a water pumping activity
Depart for home from Boston Logan International Airport