MIT Stem Pals
 
  May 2013  
 

MIT Online Resources for K-12 STEM Education
From Elizabeth Murray

Elizabeth Murray“The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.” For many years now, members of the MIT community have reached out to schools in the greater Cambridge and Boston communities to provide educational programs related to math, science and engineering. In recent years, more and more of these outreach programs have adopted an online approach, enabling MIT to extend its K-12 outreach well beyond the local community to the nation and world at large. Below are brief descriptions and the URLs of many of these online outreach initiative, most of which are aimed at high school level education.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm
Highlights for High School features MIT OpenCourseWare materials that are most useful for high school students and teachers. The program’s goal for teachers is to make it easy for them to find resources they can use to inspire their students. The site also includes several courses designed at MIT specifically for high school classes.

http://biobuilder.org
BioBuilder® is an open-access website offering informative animations and activities for anyone who wants to teach or learn about synthetic biology.

http://web.mit.edu/star/
The STAR program at MIT seeks to bridge the divide between scientific research and the classroom. Understanding and applying research methods in the classroom setting can be challenging due to time constraints and the need for advanced equipment and facilities. The multidisciplinary STAR team collaborates with faculty from MIT and other educational institutions to design software exploring core scientific research concepts. The goal of STAR is to develop innovative and intuitive teaching tools for classroom use.

http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/pcr/index.html
Haystack Observatory is an interdisciplinary research center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focused on radio astronomy, geodesy, and atmospheric science.

http://web.mit.edu/18.06/www/Video/video-fall-99.html
MIT Professor Gil Strang's Linear Algebra Class Lecture Videos

http://math.mit.edu/mathlets/
Here you will find a suite of dynamic Java applets for use in learning about differential equations and other mathematical subjects, along with examples of how to use them in homework, group work, or lecture demonstration, and some of the underlying theory.

http://blossoms.mit.edu/
MIT BLOSSOMS has over 100 video lessons on its site, spanning topics in mathematics, biology, chemistry, engineering and physics. These videos are designed to present a 50-minute lesson, and each one provides all needed materials, including teacher guide and student handouts. They aim to excite students about STEM subjects, connect these subjects to the real world and teach critical thinking skills.

http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/about.html
The InvenTeam initiative, created by the Lemelson-MIT Program, offers an unparalleled opportunity for high school students to cultivate their creativity and experience invention.

http://Scratch.mit.edu
Scratch is a new programming language created at MIT that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

http://k12videos.mit.edu/
This site presents short videos created by MIT students that teach basic concepts in science and engineering and are aimed at students in grades from kindergarten through high school.

http://www.educationarcade.org/
The Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. TEA's research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players.

http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=79434230
This site is sponsored by a group of research scientist from across the country who  are committed to developing and implementing exciting new strategies and techniques to teach biology.

Elizabeth Murray is Project Manager of the MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative.

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