MIT's Independent Activities Period provides lots of interesting,
educational and fun activities. IAP is a month-long period set aside to
encourage MIT students, staff and faculty to break away from their
routine and explore topics outside of their regular specialties.
Activities can be for-credit or non-credit. Classes are run by MIT
community members from students to Nobel prize winners. Some sessions
are only a couple of hours long, others meet throughout the IAP period.
Here's just a sample:
Tuesday, January 16
6:30-8:30 pm Starting and Running a High Tech Company
Nuts and Bolts of Preparing a Business Plan
Room 10-250, enter at 77 Massachusetts Ave.
Wednesday, January 17
12-2:00 pm Paper Airplane Contest
Prizes awarded in several design and performance
categories
Lobby of 77 Massachusetts Avenue
Thursday, January 18
12:30-1:30 pm Sing in Japanese
A professional musician will lead the group in
learning traditional Japanese songs and
sentimental Karaoke favorites
Room 4-160
2:00-5:00 pm Rock Squeeze Challenge
Students tour the Rock Deformation Lab, participate
in fracture experiments and try their skill to
register the largest bare-handed deformation of a
cubic foot granite block
Room 54-715
5:00-6:00 pm Become a Musical (Semi)-Conductor
Conducting instruction from the ground up
Room 4-364 (every Tues. and Thurs. through IAP)
6:00-9:00 pm Bread Making *Please call 258-5400 to cover
Learn the basics of bread-making from an MIT
professor, housemaster and others
McCormick Hall
Tuesday, January 23
4:30-5:30 pm Make a Techie Test-tube Mezuzah
Construct your own scriptural passage container for
your door
Building W11, Hillel Center
Wednesday, January 24
7:30pm Build a Motion Simulator Ride in Your Garage
Use motors and other gadgets to move a chair in sync
with video and audio
Building 20B-119
Thursday, January 25
12:30-1:30 pm Sing in Japanese (see 1/18)
2:00-4:00 pm Choreographic Topology (or Making Knots)
In the Math Department's look at knots, participants
will link hands to form and study different knots
Room 2-255
Tuesday, January 30
12-4pm Charm School
Booths offering ballroom dancing, table manners,
buttering up big shots, and formalities help
students prep for the "real world"
77 Massachusetts Avenue lobby and Lobby 10
Thursday, February 1
2:00-4:00 pm Knots (see 1/25)
Friday, February 2
11:00 am-2:00 pm Bridge Design Contest
Participants will test the bridges they constructed
during IAP
Lobby of Building 10, enter at 77 Massachusetts Ave.
From sessions on getting better grades and writing resumes, to learning
the martial art Aikido, buffing up your conversational Hindi, to
learning how to become a mediator or taking a class on alternate energy
sources or a quickie class on contemporary cinema, there's real variety.
