http://k12videos.mit.edu

In December, 2011, Ian Waitz, MIT’s Dean of Engineering, launched the MIT-K12 project, driven by a series of questions: How can we change the perception of the role of engineers and scientists in the world? What can MIT do, right now, to improve STEM education at the K12 level? What if MIT became a publicly accessible “experiential partner” to the country’s K12 educators? What if MIT students generated short-form videos to complement the work those educators are already doing in their classrooms and homes?

This site was built around a simple idea: K12 educators and MIT should be working together to make movies. No one would argue that STEM education in the U.S. is in tough shape. Teachers want to do something about it, and so do MIT students.

Well, here's your chance.

1. Educators can submit ideas for experiments or demonstrations they would like to see an MIT student perform and explain in a short video (5-10 minutes long) that will be made available online.

2. MIT students can then "check out" these assignments (in the library sense of that phrase) — or they can come up with their own ideas and check them out themselves.

Scroll through the videos from the YouTube playlist above or click below to watch individual videos from our speakers at TEDxYouth@TheSchool on 11/19/11. All the speaker bios are on the website.

Don Buckley
Charles Wilson
Lucas Ward
Dickson Despommier
Shannon Durugordon and Kate Scheuermann
Charles Colten
Monica Louie
Mauricio Salgado
Sharon Unis
Ben Hirschfeld
Nonsequitur

Thank you to all who presented, attended, sponsored and organized this second annual TEDxYouth@TheSchool!

Yesterday, I worked with the 5th grade Spanish teacher, Nicole Haleen, to help her students search and cite online images for their Day of the Dead (Día de Los Muertos) altars. They built their altar in Inspiration, as it allowed them to quickly create tiers in order to populate with images and text. Their three tiers represented what the person they were commemorating liked to eat, drink, and do.

After gathering and citing all the images, kids were told to write brief descriptions (in Spanish) for why they chose each image for their altar. To record their voices in Inspiration, students highlighted each image, went up to Tools in the menu bar, scrolled down to Insert video or sound and then over to Record sound. For this recording step, students were told to grab a pair of our Logitech USB microphone headsets. We previously used a different Logitech model that was not as kid-friendly, and the earpieces kept snapping off. Having a microphone headset is a huge advantage as they drastically cut down on ambient noise. Students will probably need to change their input/output sound settings in System Preferences. They will also probably need frequent reminders to do this.