This learning video addresses a particular problem of selection bias, a statistical bias in which there is an error in choosing the individuals or groups to make broader inferences. Rather than delve into this broad topic via formal statistics, we investigate how it may appear in our everyday lives, sometimes distorting our perceptions of people, places and events, unless we are careful. When people are picked at random from two groups of different sizes, most of those selected usually come from the bigger group. That means we will hear more about the experience of the bigger group than that of the smaller one. This isn't always a bad thing, but it isn't always a good thing either. Because big groups ''speak louder,'' we have to be careful when we write mathematical formulas about what happened in the two groups. We think about this issue in this video, with examples that involve theaters, buses, and lemons. The prerequisite for this video lesson is a familiarity with algebra. It will take about one hour to complete, and the only materials needed are a blackboard and chalk.

The aim of this video lesson is to teach students about the different topologies of computer networks and how they function. The approach that is used is highly correlated with common knowledge about weddings and the local Malay culture associated with weddings. Students should be able to relate the act of delivering food to a large crowd of people to the basic principles of network topologies and the method of data transfer within each type of topology. The lesson will begin in a classroom with students working in small groups, answering assigned questions. Teaching aids such as color cards will be used. One student from each group will be appointed as the wedding event manager, and she/he will have to discuss and act out with group members in order to answer more challenging questions. At the end of the lesson, students will be asked to come up with their own version of a hybrid computer network topology. The lesson concept taught here not only educates students on computer topologies, but also introduces students to an important cultural perspective of Malaysia. Above all, this video is designed to assist students with their study of Computer Literacy in schools. The lesson will take up to 60 minutes to complete. Materials needed include: 10 red cards representing waitresses; 10 green cards representing waiters; 10 blue cards representing tables in the hall; a sketch book; and classroom tables and chairs.

Do you know what your bank does with your money? What is the role of a bank in producing societal well-being?
This course looks into banks that operate differently, namely, “just banks" that use capital and finance as a tool to address social and ecological challenges.
This course is for anyone who wants to understand the unique role banks play as intermediaries in our economy and how they can leverage that position to produce positive social, environmental, and economic change.
Go to OCW’s Open Learning Library site for 11.405x: Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered. The site is free to use, just like all OCW sites. You have the option to sign up and enroll in the course if you want to track your progress, or you can view and use all the materials without enrolling.

This lesson uses the fundamentals of protein synthesis as a context for investigating the closest living relative to Tyrannosaurus rex and evaluating whether or not paleontologist and dinosaur expert, Jack Horner, will be able to "create" live dinosaurs in the lab. The first objective is for students to be able to access and properly utilize the NIH's protein sequence database to perform a BLAST, using biochemical evidence to determine T rex's closest living relative. The second objective is for students to be able to explain and evaluate Jack Horner's plans for creating live dinosaurs in the lab. The main prerequisite for the lesson is a basic understanding of protein synthesis, or the flow of information in the cell from DNA to RNA during transcription and then from RNA to protein during translation

This lesson presents the basics of aerodynamics by using kite flying as an example, i.e., forces acting on a flying object. Students will measure the net force acting on a kite due to blowing air and will learn how a simple instrument like a spring can be used to measure such force. They will also examine and experience how the force on the kite is transferred to the string in the form of tension and will again measure that tension with a simple spring. This lesson will take about 30 minutes to complete. One will need a calibrated spring to measure forces, as well as a few springs to study the coplanar forces.

This reading seminar examines land, water, food, and climate in a changing world, with an emphasis on key scientific questions about the connections between natural resources and food production. Students read and discuss papers on a range of topics, including water and land resources, climate change, demography, agroecology, biotechnology, trade, and food security. The readings are supplemented by short lectures that provide context and summarize main points. The seminar provides a broad perspective on one of the defining global issues of this century. Students consider scientific controversies as well as areas of general agreement and examine practical solutions for addressing critical problems.

LEGO® robotics uses LEGO®s as a fun tool to explore robotics, mechanical systems, electronics, and programming. This seminar is primarily a lab experience which provides students with resources to design, build, and program functional robots constructed from LEGO®s and a few other parts such as motors and sensors.

This course examines theories and principles that underlie the concept of free speech in the United States, the historical context in which the values of free speech and toleration emerged, and the philosophical arguments that were and are made for and against them. Students analyze a variety of contexts and communicative practices, including new media technologies, to debate how “speech” can be described and when it should be appropriately regulated. The course also considers current disputes over free speech on college campuses.

This course is the second half of the year-long introductory graduate sequence Lie Groups and Lie Algebras I & Lie Groups and Lie Algebras II. Topics include classical groups, Haar measure on locally compact groups, the representation-theoretic understanding of the hydrogen atom, representations of compact (in particular, finite) groups, the Peter-Weyl theorem with proof, maximal tori, Cartan and Iwasawa decompositions, classification of real reductive Lie groups, topology of Lie groups, proof of the third fundamental theorem of Lie theory, Levi decomposition, Ado’s theorem, Borel subgroups, and flag manifolds.

Quantitative techniques of operations research with emphasis on applications in transportation systems analysis (urban, air, ocean, highway, and pickup and delivery systems) and in the planning and design of logistically oriented urban service systems (e.g., fire and police departments, emergency medical services, and emergency repair services). Unified study of functions of random variables, geometrical probability, multi-server queuing theory, spatial location theory, network analysis and graph theory, and relevant methods of simulation. Computer exercises and discussions of implementation difficulties.

This resource includes a set of activities, teacher guides, assessments, materials, and more to assist educators in teaching about the ethics of artificial intelligence. These activities were developed at the MIT Media Lab to meet a growing need for children to understand artificial intelligence, its impact on society, and how they might shape the future of AI.

MIT BLOSSOMS is not a single resource. It is a video repository of more than 120 math and science lessons for high school classes.

The MIT Project on Embodied Education aims to close the gap between the growing body of research on movement and the learning process and the pedagogical strategies that educators use, finding ways to integrate physical activity and academic instruction at all levels—for example, teaching elementary school math through yoga, middle school physics through martial arts, high school science through swimming, and college history through dance.

The Malaysia Sustainable Cities Practicum is an intensive field-based course that brings 15 graduate students to Malaysia to learn about and analyze sustainable city development in five cities in Malaysia. The students in the Practicum will help determine the extent to which these efforts have been successful. They will identify specific projects or policy-making efforts that the following year’s cohort of International Visiting Scholars can examine more closely. 
Lead Faculty
Professor Larry Susskind
Teaching Assistants
Jessica Gordon
Yasmin Zaerpoor
Administrative Staff
Takeo Kuwabara
Selmah Goldberg

This course is an introduction to the use of accounting information by managers for decision making, performance evaluation and control. The course should be useful for those who intend to work as management consultants, for LFM (Leaders for Manufacturing) students, and in general, for those who will become senior managers.

This course covers the current state of incarceration in the United States and proposals for reform. Class materials include a mix of firsthand/media accounts of incarceration and social science literature on the causes and effects of high incarceration rates. Topics include race and the criminal legal system, collateral consequences of incarceration, public opinion about incarceration, and the behavior of recently elected “reform” prosecutors.

The goal of this video lesson is to teach students about new and exciting ways of holding an election that they may not be aware of. Students will learn three different methods of voting: plurality, instant runoff, and the Borda count. They will be led through a voting experiment in which they will see the weakness of plurality when there are three or more candidates. This lesson will show that not every voting system is perfect, and that each has its strengths and weaknesses. It will also promote thought, discussion, and understanding of the various methods of voting.

The main aim of this lesson is to show students that distances may be determined without a meter stick—a concept fundamental to such measurements in astronomy. It introduces students to the main concepts behind the first rung of what astronomers call the distance ladder. The four main learning objectives are the following: 1) Explore, in practice, a means of measuring distances without what we most often consider the “direct” means: a meter stick; 2) Understand the limits of a method through the exploration of uncertainties; 3) Understand in the particular method used, the relationship between baseline and the accuracy of the measurement; and 4) Understand the astronomical applications and implications of the method and its limits. Students should be able to use trigonometry and know the relation between trigonometric functions and the triangle. A knowledge of derivatives is also needed to obtain the expression for the uncertainty on the distance measured. Students will need cardboard cut into disks. The number of disks is essentially equal to half the students in the class. Two straight drink straws and one pin per disk. Students will also need a protractor. The lesson should not take more than 50 minutes to complete if the students have the mathematical ability mentioned above. This lesson is complimentary to the BLOSSOMS lesson, "The Parallax Activity." The two lessons could be used sequentially - this one being more advanced - or they could be used separately.

This course introduces the fundamentals of machine tool and computer tool use. Students work with a variety of machine tools including the bandsaw, milling machine, and lathe. Instruction given on MATLAB®, MAPLE®, XESS™, and CAD. Emphasis is on problem solving, not programming or algorithmic development. Assignments are project-oriented relating to mechanical engineering topics. It is recommended that students take this subject in the first IAP after declaring the major in Mechanical Engineering.
This course was co-created by Prof. Douglas Hart and Dr. Kevin Otto.

In this lesson students will see the different types of evidence scientists use to understand evolutionary relationships among organisms. They will first practice by using shared physical characteristics to predict relationships among members of the cat family and then use this approach to predict primate relationships. They will compare their predictions to evidence provided by analyzing amino acid sequences and build a phylogenetic tree based on these sequences. Finally, they will look at the tree in the context of time in order to see divergence times.