A report by researchers from MIT and Harvard outlines a framework for improving education during the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Paul Darvasi for KQED. “It's more likely that if young people feel like they have voice and ownership and are part of the process of reopening and recreating schools, that they will be more likely to be excited to participate in them,” says Prof. Justin Reich.
A new report by MIT and Harvard researchers outlines a set of strategies for improving schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic, including focusing on core lessons, sparking joy and strengthening bonds between teachers and students, reports Naomi Martin for The Boston Globe.
WGBH’s Cristina Quinn visits an AI Ethics camp for middle school-aged kids co-hosted by the MIT Media Lab and local STEM organization Empow Studios. “I love to think about a future where the students in this workshop make up the majority of the people who work in Silicon Valley or the majority of the people who work on Wall Street,” says graduate research assistant Blakeley H. Payne, a leader at the camp.
WGBH reporter Cristina Quinn visits MIT to learn about a new ethics of AI workshop offered to middle school-aged children this summer. “I don't want the ethics piece to go to an elite few,” says graduate research assistant Blakeley H. Payne of the importance of offering an education in AI ethics. “And then you're just perpetuating these systems of inequality over and over again.”
Aaron Schachter of WGBH’s On Campus Radio visits the Edgerton Center’s summer Engineering Design Workshop for high school students. [Doc Edgerton] “believed that it was a duty of engineers and scientists to communicate why we do what we do, the coolness of what we do, and the interestingness of what we do, to the general population, which includes students,” explains Ed Moriarty, who leads the workshop.
Wired reporter Elizabeth notes how the ScratchJr programming language, which was developed to help teach children how to code, is being used as part of an effort to teach young children the basics of computer programming.
In this Washington Post article, reporter Chris Berdik spotlights assessment tools developed by MIT’s Playful Journey Lab to help educators track skills development in playful learning activities. “We want to support teachers who are fighting for these types of activities and future-ready skills,” explains research scientist YJ Kim.
Members of the MIT Spokes team speak with NBC Boston reporter Michael Page about their quest to ride their bicycles across the country this summer, hosting STEM workshops for students along the way. Undergraduate Leah Yost explains that the hands-on workshops provide students with a sense of “what a future in STEM might look like.”
Writing for Wired, Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, argues that online platforms should be designed to encourage young people to learn and explore through high-quality content. “We need to recognize that young people will make contact with commercial content and grown-ups online, and we need to figure out better ways to regulate and optimize platforms to serve participants of mixed ages,” writes Ito.
Reporting for WBUR’s CommonHealth, Carey Goldberg highlights new classroom kits developed by MIT researchers that allow kids to learn and experiment with the building blocks of DNA. "I just think it's really important that microbiology education is accessible for everyone," says graduate student Ally Huang, "and that everyone, regardless of their resources, has access to things like this."
The Clubhouse Network, which the MIT Media Lab helped launch 25 years ago, has opened its flagship headquarters in Dudley Square, reports Allison Hagan for The Boston Globe. Now in 100 cities in the U.S. and other countries, the program helps “young people to use technology for creative self-expression and collaborate with their peers and mentors,” explains Hagan.
Amy Fitzgerald, outreach program coordinator for the Edgerton Center, speaks with New York Times reporter Jane Levere about the Ad Council’s new “She Can STEM” campaign aimed at girls ages 11 to 15. Fitzgerald says the message “could have a big effect,” adding that it’s vital the campaign shows “mechanical engineers, aviation engineers, women who get their hands dirty…Girls, especially, do not have an idea of the range of possibilities.”
Fox News reporters Kevin Tracy and Christopher Howard highlight how MIT alumna Laila Shabir created a summer camp aimed at inspiring girls interesting in playing and creating video games. “It’s like teaching someone how to paint,” Shabir explains. “You know once you teach them how to paint they can express themselves through that medium. That’s exactly what we’re doing at camp.”
WCVB’s Mike Wankum visits the Beaver Works Summer Institute to see how high school students are gaining hands-on engineering experience. Robert Shin, director of Beaver Works, explains that the program is aimed at “inspiring the next generation.”
WCVB-TV’s Karen Holmes Ward highlights how MIT students created a summer camp, called DynaMIT, aimed at getting middle school students interested in STEM fields. MIT undergraduate Julia Cho explains that DynaMIT tries to, “focus on hands-on activities because we know that students are much more interested in those sorts of experiments and places where they can explore to their heart’s content.”