MIT SEPT 2014 By Divya Johar

For one week this summer, teachers from 5 countries and around the US met each other at MIT for the 25th annual Science + Engineering Program for Teachers (SEPT)!

Since 1989, over 1,200 middle and high school teachers have been selected to participate in SEPT - all recognized as innovative, creative, and dedicated leaders in their schools and communities. As in past years, the SEPT Class of 2014 attended lectures from top scientists, try out the latest technology developed on campus, and talk shop with an outstanding group of passionate educators - professors, students, researchers, and teachers at sessions together all week long!

This was first introduction to the program organizers and other SEPT participants. Emily Martin who was the main contact person and organizer greeted everyone at Maseeh Hall of MIT.

After settling down in rooms everyone headed towards the hall where dinner was being served and met other participants. We were given the logistics and introductions. After that we all left for the campus tour.

Subjects:

Anna L. Frebel, Assistant Professor of Physics, Department of Physics LINK TO SPEAKER'S PROFILE FOR HER INTERVIEW ON THE PODCAST, YOU'RE THE EXPERT

• After big bang there was only Helium and Hydrogen as two main elements.

• First heavy elements were created in first stars. Anna's project is looking for 2nd generation of stars where a fraction of He and H got converted into heavier elements.

This was the first lecture I had and it was amazing. Anna was working on project ‘Searching for the oldest stars’. Other than her main presentation I also learnt the following:

"THE BASICS OF INFLATIONARY COSMOLOGY"

Alan H. Guth, Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics MacVicar Faculty Fellow, Department of Physics

This lesson was mind boggling to me and other teachers. Alan talked about his research project on inflation. His presentation was on evidence for inflation, gravitation as a repulsive force, energy of gravity and significance of gravitation waves.

Steven Leeb, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)

This lesson has direct applications in my physics class. Steven made simple and basic connections between some key concepts that teachers normally teach as separate topics. He also shared with us the complexity in coming up a alternative fuels as gasoline's energy content is so high.

"FLIPPING THE DICE: AN ACTIVE-LEARNING, TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED, UP-TO-DATE INTRO TO PROBABILITY & STATISTICS"

Drs. Jonathan Bloom and Jeremy Orloff, Department of Mathematics Jeremy and Jonathan showed us a very simple presentation on a complex topic in probability. I am planning on using their presentation with hands on activities in my algebra 2 classes. Although this is bit beyond the scope of our syllabus but I think it is worth teaching. I might have to cut few slides depending on the level of students I get next year.

We worked in groups to solve few problems he gave us and it think that project brought us closer to each other and my group finished all questions with correct answers before other groups did. It was just amazing how we all got so competitive.

Richard Larson, Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems Director, Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals Richard shared with us a useful resource of videos that we can use in class. The best thing about these videos is that they are short.

Link to BLOSSOMS webpage Link to CPALMS (one of many Open Educational Resource webpages referenced in Prof. Larson's presentation)

Jason Jay, Lecturer and Director of the Sustainability Initiative at the MIT Sloan School of Management

This was an amazing lesson in many ways. Jason made us play a game. We were working as teams but were also competitive with other teams. It was a strategic game where we had to make plans based on previous years and predictions for next year. This was also a good game to study graphs and analyze them. This game was about sustainability which can be applied in environmental science and business classes also. I am planning to use this in first couple days of

school in my Algebra 2 class just as an intro to graphs.

Link to LearningEdge website with educator log-in options to access resources Link to profile of Elinor Ostrom, author of Governing the Commons, on the Creative Commons website

Link to Sea Perch website with instructions and parts list for building a Sea Perch

During this lecture we learnt about ROVs, AUVs and Submersibles. Kathryn also shared a link to sea perch website that has information for grants , trainings, projects and programs.

Kathryn Shroyer, Engineering Educator for the MIT Sea Grant's Marine Advisory

Jessica Alföldi, Group Leader, Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute

Link to video of Jessica Alföldi's presentation on the Coelacanth in 2013 at the Broad Institute

http://ki.mit.edu/

Before the tour we had 10 minute lesson on cancer research going on at KOCH institute of MIT. Then we all went for a tour to their lab where they keep zebra fish and do experiments on them.

Although my education background is not in this field and neither are my expertise but it was a very intriguing lesson for me. Learning how fish can help scientists and researchers understand and analyze cancer cell growth and movement was interesting. I might not be able to directly use this knowledge in my classes but I can share it with my students

Ed Moriarty and Alban Cobi, Instructors, Edgerton Center Meeting ED was an amazing experience. Ed seemed like a teacher willing to follow students’ lead and to let them discover their own voice.

Ed gave us numerous hands on project options on which we could work. It was great that we were allowed to work on those independently or with a small group.

We all worked on different projects but due to time constraints we all had to pick our top 2-3 choices. I worked on Aurora Bears, Edison player, laser show, Electromagnets and the best one was shooting a slow motion video.

This was a great hands on session on Amino acids, DNA and RNA. Legos made the whole lesson simple and easy to understand.

Drs. Kathy Vandiver, Director, and Amanda Mayer, Outreach Coordinator, Community Outreach Education and Engagement Core, CEHS

This session was an interesting session. The speaker talked about:

Why are tests important?

Definition of terms

Examples of flaws in math questions

How to fix the flawed questions

Dr. Marcia Kastner, Former Administrator for Math Test Development at the Mass. Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Ed.

http://chemistry.mit.edu/people/swager-timothy This lecture was about ultrasensitive sensors based on electronically active conjugated polymers (CPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A central concept that a single nano- or molecular-wire spanning between two electrodes would create an exceptional sensor if binding of a molecule of interest to it would block all electronic transport. The use of carbon nanotube based gas sensors for the detection of ethylene and other gases are being specifically.

Caroline Ross, Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Prof. Ross’ presentation was about magnets. She shared with us applications of magnets and advancements in those applications. Her topic included the following: • An electron has 1 unit of magnetic

moment • To levitate even a small object you

need a really strong magnetic field. • Samarian-cobalt and Neodymium-iron-

boron magnets are really strong magnets

• Magnetic data storage

Elizabeth Vogel Taylor, Instructor, Department of Chemistry

Beth’s educational interests focus on generating free and easy-to-implement materials for chemistry and biology educators. Beth shared with us few videos of students’ personal stories and their research projects. The best part was to actually meet some of those in person. Here are two links to two videos: http://chemvideos.mit.edu/all-videos/#colorbox http://chemvideos.mit.edu/all-videos/#colorbox

Richard Perdichizzi, Senior Technical Instructor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

This was a fun and educational tour. We all got a chance to learn about Subsonic civil transport aircraft project. Richard shared with us some details of the project and difficulties with it.

http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/news/magazine/aeroastro7/n-3.html

Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor of Practice, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

http://heritage.stsci.edu/index.html

This was by far the best experience I had at MIT. Being a student in Prof. Hoffman’s class was an honor for all of us. He shared with us his experience of rescuing Hubble. He also shared the problems Hubble had after it got launched and how He and his team of 4 fixed it in space.

Prof. Hoffman fixing Hubble

We got a chance to visit the Nuclear reactor lab of MIT. Our guide gave us a detailed tour of lab and explained to process and applications of the lab. It was surprising how they used weapon grade fuel in that lab but were not allowed to use nuclear energy to produce electricity.

http://web.mit.edu/nrl/www/tours.htm

David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor, Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society

David’s lesson was bit difficult for me to understand in the beginning as it was very abstract. But by the end everything started making sense. The way he presented the concept was interesting . I understood the tests, concepts and research related to quantum theory with cosmos better than I ever did.

Book: How the Hippies saved physics

This lesson was about isense apps . We used them to collect data. My group worked on acceleration in elevator and we analyzed the data we collected. The data came out bit noisy but it still worked. I am planning on working on it more so I can use it in my classes.

Fred Martin, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of Student Success, UMass, Lowell

http://www2.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=762

José Gómez-Márquez, SUTD-MIT International Design Center

This lesson was a unique one as Jose took us all to this virtual world of developing countries not being able to take advantage of medical technologies that are being donated to them by other countries. He and his team works on breaking apart expensive and unrepairable equipment to understand the mechanism and building something similar but simple, less expensive and easy to construct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7GBYzAfZI8

Ed Boyden, Associate Professor, Media Lab and McGovern Institute, Depts of Bio. Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Science

http://www.ted.com/talks/ed_boyden#t-105188

It was an amazing lesson about neuroscience. Ed shared top notch research being done at MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Watching the video of electrical stimulator instalation in brain to treat tremor was inspiring and beautiful. The link below is not the same video that he showed us but a similar one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksjHNbb6NFQ

Russ Tedrake, X Consortium Associate Professor of EECS and Aero/Astro and the Director of the Center for Robotics at CSAIL

https://www.youtube.com/user/RobotLocomotionGroup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXHLntka5q4&list=PLw9EMkXLDAXox6bcbEa5xKl8XQaeZnAxu

Links to some videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea7HkVzbskc&feature=youtu.be

Claire O'Connell, MITx Fellow (MIT Class of '13) and Emily Mackevicius, PhD Student, MIT Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Links to some videos and games:

http://eyewire.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggP2A9tStTo

Group photo