MIT Stem Pals
 
 
Leaves
December 2012
 
 

A Dose of Inspiration: Recommendations for TED Talks on Education
From Megan Rokop

Megan RokopOne of the most rewarding parts of being a science educator is being able to inspire excitement in students. But we science educators need our fair share of inspiration as well. So this month I offer up suggestions for a quick dose of inspiration for educators, through a few selected TED talks I have recently enjoyed watching.

  • Neil Turok weaves a talk out of three very different topics that all converge: his research as theoretical physicist studying the big bang, his personal history growing up in Africa, and the math & science academies he has recently started for students throughout Africa (i.e. the “AIMS” academies, or African Institutes for Mathematical Sciences):
    http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_turok_makes_his_ted_prize_wish.html
  • Temple Grandin elucidates how her mind works and how she learns, given that she is autistic. She gives fascinating examples of how she “thinks in pictures,” and discusses how her decades of work with animals have benefitted from her way of processing information. She now travels the country giving talks about how students possess various kinds of minds, and she offers up tangible suggestions on how to reach those students who are often hardest to reach:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html
  • Dave Eggers discusses establishing “826 Valencia” – a tutoring center which attracts many visitors through its dual function as a pirate supply shop (due to a retail zoning requirement). The center is funded by sales from the shop – not only of eyepatches and peglegs, but also of books authored by the schoolchildren being tutored at the center. Volunteers (such as authors & journalists) work one-on-one with the students at the center, and travel to city schools to tutor on-site:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html
  • Geoff Mulgan delivers a short five-minute introduction to the concept of “studio schools,” which are spreading throughout England. (Such schools are also springing up closer to home, such as the NuVu Studio <http://nuvustudio.org/> right here in Cambridge MA.) At these schools, a majority of the work is team-based and focused on real-life problems solved during long-term projects:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/geoff_mulgan_a_short_intro_to_the_studio_school.html
  • Shukla Bose discusses her work with the Parikrma Humanity Foundation, through which she has begun 4 schools and 1 junior college for the poorest children living in the slums and orphanages of India. These schools aim to address the needs of the students by focusing on one child at a time, instead of constantly striving to scale up and up. These schools provide much-needed personal attention for the students (and their parents, many of whom come after school for literacy classes):
    http://www.ted.com/talks/shukla_bose_teaching_one_child_at_a_time.html
  • Beau Lotto describes his neuroscience research on bees, and his recent research collaboration with a class of 25 ten-year olds. These students took their research project from beginning to end, even writing the paper, which begins “Once upon a time...” Beau describes his adventures in getting the students’ work published, which it now is – in a peer-reviewed journal, no less. One of his co-authors (now 12-year-old Amy O’Toole) joins in to share snippets of her part of the story:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_amy_o_toole_science_is_for_everyone_kids_included.html
  • Charles Leadbeater discusses his visits to the poorest regions of world, and the educational innovations that have begun to happen there. His focus is on pulling kids into a learning environment – not pushing them – and how one can do so with anything from computer labs & games, to lessons focused around dance & music. He encourages the use of peer learning, and a focus on teaching through generating solutions to daily real-life questions, problems and projects:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_leadbeater_on_education.html

Megan Rokop is Educational Outreach Program Director at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard

Back to newsletter

 
 
logo  
Fujitsu
MIT