2018-2019-STEAM-Superheroes - Flipbook - Page 31
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS
Introduction
Welcome to the MIT Challenges, and thank you for being part of the team that will bring STEAM
Superheroes to fruition in your school; the team includes your MIT School Lead, your school’s Regional
Lead, and the NAE-MIT collaboration leadership.
The MIT Challenges provide Nord Anglia schools with a connection to MIT research and innovation. There
is no curriculum or lesson plans to follow. Rather, these MIT professors will inspire your students to connect
the knowledge and skills they’ve learned to a hands-on project of their own design, infused with MIT ethos.
This section of the MIT Challenges binder contains descriptions and resources for each of the three
STEAM Superheroes challenges: Medical Marvel featuring Prof. Chris Voigt, Super Natural featuring Prof.
Peko Hosoi, and Epic Identity featuring Prof. Leia Stirling. Additional planning tools and templates have
been curated and posted to http://bit.ly/MITSuperheroes.
Your school team decides how to implement the MIT Challenges: which students participate, how much
time to allot, and when they should happen. Because the MIT Challenges are student-led projects
designed to be implemented flexibly, the end products your students create will be unique. Please share
your results with NAE and MIT in the STEAM Community on NAU, and on social media with #NAEMIT,
and through your termly reports (submitted by the MIT School Lead).
STEAM Superheroes
2018-2019 MIT CHALLENGES
Superheroes are a huge part of the popular culture. But their powers are in the realm of fantasy and science
fiction… right? When you look around MIT through the eyes of a superhero, you will see elements of heroism all
across campus: High tech gadgets and wearables, animal-inspired improvements, and life-saving technologies.
The 2018-2019 MIT Challenges are STEAM Superheroes. We’re highlighting the research of three MIT
professors—and their sidekick graduate student researchers—for Nord Anglia to use as inspiration for
developing their own innovations, powers, devices, identities, and more.
EPIC IDENTITY FEATURING PROF. LEIA STIRLING
A superhero’s ensemble can be critical to their powers. A wearable device, a
customized gadget, or the suit itself: these elements enhance the hero’s abilities.
MIT Professor Leia Stirling is an engineer who both develops new wearable
technology, like specialized boots for astronauts, that enhance the way
humans perform. What’s more, she comes up with ways to measure and
quantify how effective wearables are, i.e. how much more power, speed,
or agility does the technology actually give its wearer?
The objective of Epic Identity is for Nord Anglia students to learn about
wearable technology and its ability to improve human performance. MIT
challenges students to test or develop wearable technologies, and analyze
how they enhance the identity and/or powers of a superhero.
#NAEMIT
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