Writing for The New York Times about educational technology, Prof. Cynthia Breazeal describes her research examining the importance of social cues in learning from technology. “If we want to use technology to help people learn, we have to provide information in the way the human mind evolved to receive it,” she explains.
CNN Greece highlights the "Maker Summer School," a weeklong workshop for unaccompanied refugees in Athens developed by researchers from the MIT D-Lab. The article, which is in Greek, explores how participants spent six days learning the design process by making real products they can use in their daily lives.
FOX 25 reporter Bob Dumas features a dance-party lamp developed by MIT researchers aimed at getting girls interested in STEM fields. “There’s research that shows girls, around middle school age, their participation in STEM classes and curriculum starts to drop off," explains Prof. Maria Yang. She adds that she wants to, "get girls back on the STEM train by engaging their interests.”
Mercury News reporter Jasmine Leyva highlights how students in Campbell, California are participating in the Zero Robotics program, which “aims to take students’ work to the moon and beyond, all while teaching students about space exploration, computer science and coding.” The Zero Robotics program is led by the MIT Space Systems Lab, Innovation Learning Center and Aurora Flight Sciences.
Preston County News & Journal reporter Theresa Marthey writes that students from Preston County, West Virginia are working on code to move SPHERES satellites on the International Space Station as part of the Zero Robotics program. Instructor Amanda Rehe explains that, “students have direct access with students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to use as a resource and assist with coding help.”
Boston Globe reporter Jeremy Fox writes about a new study by MIT researchers examining whether math games can be beneficial in helping children learn. The researchers found that, “children who played math games consistently showed a better grasp of the concepts…but that understanding did not appear to help in elementary school.”
Times Higher Education reporter Nicola Ingram examines Prof. Peter Temin’s latest book, which examines the state of the U.S. economic system. Temin, “provides an engaging commentary on the complexities of policy developments and their impact on workers’ conditions, as well as the problematic voting behaviour that seals their fate.”
Anaridis Rodriguez reports for CBS Boston on the MIT Museum’s Idea Hub, which is aimed at keeping children engaged and enriched throughout the summer months. “I think it is wonderful and inspiring to be here at MIT where there are so many incredibly inventive ideas happening,” parent Laura Hoopes says.
A group of teenage girls from Los Angeles will present a solar powered tent designed to help combat homelessness during Lemelson-MIT’s EurekaFest, writes Sophie Gallagher for HuffPost. The tent comes equipped with “button-powered lights, two USB ports, a micro-USB port, and even plans for a sanitizing UVC light on a countdown timer,” explains Gallagher.
In an article for The Atlantic, Gillian B. White writes about Prof. Peter Temin’s new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy.” White writes that in his book Temin argues that “following decades of growing inequality, America is now left with what is more or less a two-class system.”
Boston Globe reporter Stan Grossfeld spotlights a visit to the MIT Media Lab by Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas and Kalis Gregory, a seventh grader from Hyde Park. “They saw prosthetic limbs that are computerized to transmit information to the brain. They heard about digestible electronics that can harvest energy from moving body parts and they tested computer games with codes written by kids.”
In this video, Channel 7 spotlights Girls Day, an MIT Museum event aimed at encouraging girls to explore STEM fields. Attendees were able to meet the women’s basketball team “and learn the science behind making the perfect shot. Other activities included learning math through dance and the physics of pitching, hosted by the school’s softball team.”
Maia Weinstock, deputy editor of MIT News, speaks with Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro of NPR’s All Things Considered about the LEGO set she designed that celebrates the history of women at NASA. Weinstock explains that she aimed to showcase “a diverse range of women who had different roles at NASA.”
LEGO has selected MIT staff member Maia Weinstock’s Women of NASA set to become an official LEGO set, the Associated Press reports. Weinstock, who is the deputy editor of MIT News, is an “advocate for girls and women, particularly in the areas of science, technology, politics and athletics.”
Washington Post reporter Sarah Larimer writes that the Women of NASA LEGO set developed by Maia Weinstock, deputy editor for MIT News, will become an official LEGO set. Weinstock says she hopes the set, which depicts the contributions of five of NASA’s female pioneers, “helps to inspire the kids of the future!”