The purpose of this class is to tell you something about our Tech Dinghy and how to sail it. This OCW site is arranged as a series of skills, explained both with lecture notes and videos. Please do not think of these skill checks as tests, but instead, as measures of your understanding of our sport. We don‰ŰŞt expect perfection from our beginners, but only that our members be able to safely handle the boats and themselves on the Charles. For those who wish it, there will be much more that can be learned about other boats and other waters, but what can be learned here will provide the basis to build on. For more detail, a text on sailing the Tech Dinghy is provided in the readings section.

This subject teaches students, having an initial interest in sailing design, how to design good yachts. Topics covered include hydrostatics, transverse stability, and the incorporation of the design spiral into one's working methods. Computer aided design (CAD) is used to design the shapes of hulls, appendages and decks, and is an important part of this course. The capstone project in this course is the Final Design Project in which each student designs a sailing yacht, complete in all major respects. The central material for this subject is the content of the book Principals of Yacht Design by Larssson and Eliasson (see further description in the syllabus). All the class lectures are based on the material in this book. The figures in the book which are shown in class (but not reproduced on this site), contain the essential material and their meaning is explained in detail during the lecture sessions. Mastery of the material in the book and completing a design project provides the desired and needed education.

Fundamentals of satellite engineering design, including distributed satellite. Studies orbital environment. Analyzes problems of station keeping, attitude control, communications, power generation, structural design, thermal balance, and subsystem integration. Considers trade-offs among weight, efficiency, cost, and reliability. Discusses choice of design parameters, such as size, weight, power levels, temperature limits, frequency, and bandwidth. Examples taken from current satellite systems. Satellite Engineering introduces students to subsystem design in engineering spacecraft. The course presents characteristic subsystems, such as power, structure, communication and control, and analyzes the engineering trades necessary to integrate subsystems successfully into a satellite. Discussions of spacecraft operating environment and orbital mechanics help students to understand the functional requirements and key design parameters for satellite systems.

What are the circuits, mechanisms and representations that permit the recognition of a visual scene from just one glance? In this one-day seminar on Scene Understanding, speakers from a variety of disciplines -- neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, visual cognition, computational neuroscience and computer vision -- will address a range of topics related to scene recognition, including natural image categorization, contextual effects on object recognition, and the role of attention in scene understanding and visual art. The goal is to encourage exchanges between researchers of all fields of brain sciences in the burgeoning field of scene understanding.

A survey of developments in Western musical style from 1810-1910. Thirty composers discussed including the Romantics Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt; and the post-Romantics Wagner, Verdi, Brahms, Strauss, Farwell, and Mahler. Required reading, score-reading, and listening assignments.

This class develops the abilities of students to communicate science effectively in a variety of real-world contexts. It covers strategies for dealing with complex areas like theoretical physics, genomics and neuroscience, and addresses challenges in communicating about topics such as climate change and evolution. Projects focus on speaking and writing, being an expert witness, preparing briefings for policy-makers, writing blogs, and giving live interviews for broadcast, as well as the creation of an interactive exhibit for display in the MIT Museum.

The science essay uses science to think about the human condition; it uses humanistic thinking to reflect on the possibilities and limits of science and technology. In this class we read and practice writing science essays of varied lengths and purposes. We will read a wide variety of science essays, ranging across disciplines, both to learn more about this genre and to inspire your own writing. This semester's reading centers on The Dark Side," with essays ranging from Alan Lightman's "Prisoner of the Wired World" through Robin Marantz Henig's cautionary account of nano-technology ("Our Silver-Coated Future") to David Quammen's investigation of diseases that jump from animals to humans ("Deadly Contact")."

This class examines the role of science in the US environmental policymaking process. It investigates the methods scientists use to learn about the natural world and the way scientific knowledge accumulates, the treatment of science by advocates and the media, and the role of science in legislative, administrative and judicial decision making. It considers how other political systems use science, in an effort to put the US approach in comparative perspective.

This class is an introduction to writing about science—including nature, medicine and technology—for general readers. In our reading and writing we explore the craft of making scientific concepts, and the work of scientists, accessible to the public through articles and essays.

This seminar is intended to help students in the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program develop a broader perspective on their thesis research by considering some aspects of science in the large. The first part of the course challenges students to develop a thoughtful view towards major questions in science that can be incorporated in their own research process, and that will help them articulate research findings. The second part of the course emphasizes science as a social process and the important roles of written and oral communication.

This subject exposes students to a variety of visualization techniques so that they learn to understand the work involved in producing them and to critically assess the power and limits of each. Students concentrate on areas where visualizations are crucial for meaning making and data production. Drawing on scholarship in science and technology studies on visualization, critical art theory, and core discussions in science and engineering, students work through a series of case studies in order to become better readers and producers of visualizations.

Programming continues to be a an important skill in the modern world. Childhood is a great time start learning programming and to develop computational thinking creativity, and problem- solving skills!

This course teaches programming in Scratch through fun videos which explains programming in an inspiring and clear way. These are accompanied with assignments which let kids to practice programming and create programs they will like to use themselves!

On a weekly basis, we will be creating a game: a maze, an aquarium, a Flappy Bird Game and a Super Mario look-a-like. Every week, new programming blocks are taught and together we’re working on ways to improve your written code.

This course is an English version of a course that was used in primary schools in The Netherlands with great success. The material follows the educational curriculum for programming in primary education of The Netherlands.

Do you want to participate with more children? Create a personal account for every child or pupil in order for them to work at their own pace. Once they have fulfilled the entire course and were upgraded to the ID Verified track, a Scratch diploma with their names will be handed out.

Programming is becoming a more and more important skill to have. Childhood is a great time to start learning programming and to develop computational thinking, creativity, and problem- solving skills. In this course you will learn the basics of programming and how to teach it yourself as a primary or secondary school teacher.

This MOOC teaches programming in Scratch through fun videos which explain programming in an inspiring and clear way.

Every week you build a different Scratch project yourself: a flappy bird game, a virtual pet or a Mondriaan like artwork. Also weekly, new programming blocks are taught and together we’re working on ways to improve your written code. In addition, you will learn how you can integrate the same programming lessons in your class for both primary and secondary education.

Many programming principles covered in Scratch also apply to other programming languages such as JavaScript and Python. An introduction to Python as well as hardware such as robotics and a micro:bit are a part of this online course should you want to broaden your scope.

The content of this course is based on a course that was used in primary schools in The Netherlands with great success. The material follows the educational curriculum for programming in primary education of The Netherlands.

This course focuses on reading a script theatrically with a view to mounting a coherent production. Through careful, intensive reading of a variety of plays from different periods and different aesthetics, a pattern emerges for discerning what options exist for interpretating a script. The Fall 2005 version of this course contains alternate readings and assignments sections.

Survey of the important aspects of modern sediments and ancient sedimentary rocks. Emphasis is on fundamental materials, features, and processes. Textures of siliciclastic sediments and sedimentary rocks: particle size, particle shape, and particle packing. Mechanics of sediment transport. Survey of siliciclastic sedimentary rocks: sandstones, conglomerates, and shales. Carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks; cherts; evaporites. Siliciclastic and carbonate diagenesis. Paleontology, with special reference to fossils in sedimentary rocks. Modern and ancient depositional environments. Stratigraphy. Sedimentary basins. Fossil fuels: coal, petroleum.

General study of modern architecture as a response to important technological, cultural, environmental, aesthetic, and theoretical challenges after the European Enlightenment. Focus on the theoretical, historiographic, and design approaches to architectural problems encountered in the age of industrial and post-industrial expansion across the globe, with specific attention to the dominance of European modernism in setting the agenda for the discourse of a global modernity at large. Explores modern architectural history through thematic exposition rather than as simple chronological succession of ideas.

This course is an introduction to branes in string theory and their world volume dynamics. Instead of looking at the theory from the point of view of the world-sheet observer, we will approach the problem from the point of view of an observer which lives on a brane. Instead of writing down conformal field theory on the worldsheet and studying the properties of these theories, we will look at various branes in string theory and ask how the physics on their world-volume looks like.

Lectures and discussion introducing the range of topics relevant to plasma physics and fusion engineering. Introductory discussion of the economic and ecological motivation for the development of fusion power. Contemporary magnetic confinement schemes, theoretical questions, and engineering considerations are presented by expert guest lecturers. Tour of Plasma Science and Fusion Center experimental facilities.

In this undergraduate level seminar series topics vary from year to year. Students present and discuss the subject matter, and are provided with instruction and practice in written and oral communication. Some experience with proofs required. The topic for fall 2008: Computational algebra and algebraic geometry.

Seminar for mathematics majors. Students present and discuss the subject matter and write up exercises. Topic for Fall 2002: Classical geometry, beginning with Euclid's Elements and continuing to applications of Galois theory that solve the geometry problems of antiquity. No prior knowledge of Galois theory required. Instruction and practice in oral communication provided.