SP.255 is a lecture, discussion, and project based seminar about the physics of rock climbing. Participants are first exposed to the unsolved problems in the climbing community that could be answered by research and then asked to solve a small part of one of these problems. The seminar provides an introduction to engineering problems, an opportunity to practice communication skills, and a brief stab at doing some research. This seminar explicitly does not include climbing instruction nor is climbing/mountaineering experience a prerequisite.

This course explores policy and planning for sustainable development. It critically examines concept of sustainability as a process of social, organizational, and political development drawing on cases from the U.S. and Europe. It also explores pathways to sustainability through debates on ecological modernization; sustainable technology development, international and intergenerational fairness, and democratic governance.

Earth contains a variety of plants to provide food, medicine and, most importantly, energy sources for humans. In this lesson, students will categorize plants by their components and shapes. Additionally, they will learn the mechanisms behind the making of medicines and bio-fuels. It is important that the students have prior knowledge of the plant cell structures and functions. The video duration is 21 minutes, during which the students will use skills such as classification and experimentation. The students must therefore be supplied with various samples of plants. In Arabic with English subtitles.

This lesson focuses on the process of pollination. The learning objectives include learning the anatomy and physiology of flowers, the ecology of pollination, and a focus on plants as essential players in the natural world. There are no prerequisites for the lesson. The lesson will take 1½ hours, or 2 class periods or more -- depending on the areas teachers want to spend more time on or how far in depth they want their students to go. Materials needed are colored modeling clay, 8 or more assorted fresh flowers or pictures of flowers, preferably native to the local ecosystem. Dissecting microscopes or magnifying glasses are great for examining the fresh flowers, but not necessary. Additionally, pictures of different subjects/objects amongst plants are needed for the last activity. Activities for the breaks include assessing student knowledge of flowers by model building, and examining flowers to determine and distinguish between the pollination anatomy of different flowers.

This course explores the evolution of poverty and economic security in the United States, within a global context. It examines the impact of recent economic restructuring and globalization, and reviews the current debate about the fate of the middle class, sources of increasing inequality, and approaches to advancing economic opportunity and security. In this class, students will study the topic of poverty and economic security through the lens of the lived experience of Americans: individuals, families, and households; exploring the history, geography, and forces shaping the likelihood of being poor in America.

6.622 covers modeling, analysis, design, control, and application of circuits for energy conversion and control. As described by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), power electronics technology “encompasses the use of electronic components, the application of circuit theory and design techniques, and the development of analytical tools toward efficient electronic conversion, control, and conditioning of electric power.” Students taking this class will come away with an understanding of the fundamental principles of power electronics, and knowledge of how to both analyze and design power electronic components and systems.

In this lesson, through various examples and activities, exponential growth and polynomial growth are compared to develop an insight about how quickly the number can grow or decay in exponentials. A basic knowledge of scientific notation, plotting graphs and finding intersection of two functions is assumed.

This class introduces students to the interdisciplinary nature of 21st-century engineering projects with three threads of learning: a technical toolkit, a social science toolkit, and a methodology for problem-based learning. Students encounter the social, political, economic, and technological challenges of engineering practice by participating in real engineering projects with faculty and industry; this semester’s major project focuses on the engineering and economics of solar cells. Student teams will create prototypes and mixed media reports with exercises in project planning, analysis, design, optimization, demonstration, reporting and team building.

This course is an introduction to the physical processes used to measure the properties of plasmas. It will cover diagnostics suitable for a wide range of plasmas, including magnetically confined fusion plasmas and high-energy-density plasmas. Techniques include the measurements of magnetic and electric fields, particle flux, refractive index, emission and scattering of electromagnetic waves, and nuclear diagnostics.

This course is an introduction to the problems of philosophy—in particular, to problems in ethics, metaphysics, theory of knowledge, and philosophy of logic, language, and science. It takes a systematic rather than historical approach. Readings come from classical and contemporary sources, but emphasis is on examination and evaluation of proposed solutions to the problems.

Production of Educational Videos is an introduction to technical communication that is situated in the production of educational videos; the assignments are all focused on the production of videos that teach some aspect of MIT’s first-year core curriculum. The objective of these assignments is improvement in both communication ability and communication habits; these improvements are effected by providing participants with instruction, practice, feedback, and the opportunity for reflection. In addition to improvements in communication skills, improvement is expected in students’ attitude towards writing, oral presentations, and collaboration; as the semester progresses, students should feel confident of their ability to write, present, and collaborate.

Sustainability challenges organizations to address the implications – and responses – in their own operations and supply chain, products/services/markets, and community responsibilities. This course exposes students to professionals and organizations who are actively working toward making their organizations and industries sustainable.

This course discusses the evolution and role of urban public transportation modes, systems, and services, focusing on bus and rail. It covers various topics, including current practice and new methods for data collection and analysis, performance monitoring, route design, frequency determination, vehicle and crew scheduling, effect of pricing policy and service quality on ridership.

This video lesson presents a real world problem that can be solved by using the Pythagorean theorem. The problem faces a juice seller daily. He has equilateral barrels with equal heights and he always tries to empty the juice of two barrels into a third barrel that has a volume equal to the sum of the volumes of the two barrels. This juice seller wants to find a simple way to help him select the right barrel without wasting time, and without any calculations - since he is ignorant of Mathematics. The prerequisite for this lesson includes knowledge of the following: the Pythagorean theorem; calculation of a triangles area knowing the angle between its two sides; cosine rule; calculation of a circle's area; and calculation of the areas and volumes of solids with regular bases.

This lesson teaches students about the history of the Pythagorean theorem, along with proofs and applications. It is geared toward high school Geometry students that have completed a year of Algebra.

This lesson aims to help students with quadratic functions y = ax2 + bx + c. This is the next step after linear functions bx + c. The lesson begins with three quadratics and their graphs (three parabolas): y = x2 - 2x + (0 or 1 or 2). The prerequisite or co-requisite is some working experience with algebra, like factoring x2 -2x into x(x-2). The objective is to connect four things: the formula for y, the graph of y (a parabola), the roots of y and the minimum or maximum of y. The particular example y = x2 – 2x could be repeated by the teacher, for emphasis. The lesson will take more than one class period (and this is deserved!). The breaks allow time to consider parabolas starting with -x2 and opening downward. A physical path would be one (dangerous?) activity.

Video lecture on quadratic equations and their graphs. The video connects the equation, the graph, the roots, and the minimum or maximum of the quadratic function.

The topic of this video is energy in general, and specifically the ways we can quantify it. In order to make the concepts accessible to a broad audience, this video focuses on everyday things and events. How is it that energy plays a part in a child riding a scooter? How is the energy we consume in playing related to the energy on the food we eat? This video poses these questions to the class and challenges them to put a list of five such items into an ordering from most energy to least.

The scope of this video lesson consists in studying the sets of Rational and Irrational numbers. It is best suited for an advanced math course: Algebra 2 or higher.

The central concern of this class is the historical relationship between the social lives of everyday people and U.S. American poetics, with a special emphasis on what June Jordan once termed the “difficult miracle of Black poetry in America.” How does poetry help us to know one another? And how might we better understand the particular role of poetry, of poiesis, for those historically barred from the very practice of reading or writing, from ownership (even of one’s own body), and various generally recognized forms of belonging? For this course, these will be some of our animating questions.