Lessons & Activities Search
Title |
MIT Course | Preview | Type of Activity | Instructional Approach | Content Area | SDG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artifacts, Layers, Traces, and Trends | The Once and Future City |
Now the objective is to find traces of these changes present in the current environment and to interpret their significance. Many of you were attracted to your site because of some anomalous features that puzzled you and made you wonder why they were there and what had caused them to be. This is an opportunity to explore some answers to such puzzles. |
Paper | Place-Based Learning | Urban Studies | SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities |
| Assessing the Impacts of Growth in Lower Mystic (Assignment 3) | Urban Transportation and Planning |
A 15 page (max) double-spaced memo to the Boston Chief of Streets |
Memo | Place-Based Learning | Urban Studies | SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities |
| Assignment 1 | Building Technology Laboratory |
While you are free to construct your house entirely on the basis of your design and modeling skills and your physical intuition, please consider making use of provided software to guide you in choices about windows and insulation. We will use several versions of this software throughout the lab to compare prediction with performance. The elf house should be ready next week to be placed on the roof for an initial, one-week test period. Please come to lab next week prepared to finish the construction during the first half of our session. We’ll then activate and insert the temperature loggers and place the houses on the roof . We’ll also work with the data from the potatoes and continue to work with the software. |
Lab | Experiential Learning | Architecture | SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities |
| Assignment 1 | Introduction to Environmental History |
Select one of the readings from Mancall and explain the environmental assumptions implicit in its author’s response to the New World and his understanding of the possibilities it presents. These possibilities should include agriculture and natural resources, but may also extend to mercantile, military, and cultural issues. In addition, you should compare these early responses to the New World to a modern interpretation, either the one offered by William Cronon, or that of Judith Carney or J. R. McNeill (or a combination of the three, if you are feeling ambitious). In either case, don’t just offer abstract generalizations—be sure to refer specifically to the texts. |
Paper | Other | History | Varies |
| Assignment 1 | Environmental Policy and Economics |
Problem set for the course Environmental Policy and Economics. |
Problem Set | Other | Economics | SDG 8 - Decent Work & Economic Growth |
| Assignment 1 (Theoretical Environmental Analysis) | Theoretical Environmental Analysis |
Problem set from the class Theoretical Environmental Analysis. |
Problem Set | Other | Earth Science | SDG 15 - Life on Land |
| Assignment 1 - Hometown Analysis | Methods of Policy Analysis |
A critical part of creating policy is the data gathering process. What data can you find quickly and analyze? What do the data mean? What story can you tell using reliable data? What data do you need? Using your hometown as the subject of your investigation, assume that you are a policy analyst and you work for the new mayor or the new town or city council. What data can you use to tell a story about your hometown? Where is it located? How many people live there? What does it provide in terms of resources to the state? |
Presentation | Place-Based Learning | Policy | SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities |
| Assignment 1 The Earth's Radiation Budget | Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Dynamics |
The global energy balance is important for Earth's climate. When visible radiation from the Sun reaches the Earth, some of it is reflected or scattered directly back into space as shortwave radiation (the percent reflected is known as albedo) and some of it is absorbed. In the absence of clouds, absorption happens mainly at the surface. The absorbed energy warms the Earth's surface, which, in turn, emits this energy at a longer wavelength (infrared rather than visible light). The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about the Earth's radiation budget and the sorts of phenomena which may influence that budget. The description of the datasets is taken from a class taught by Schlosser, Pfirman and Ting at Columbia University. |
Problem Set | Other | Fluid Dynamics | SDG 15 - Life on Land |
| Assignment 10 | Building Technology Laboratory |
Please read Chapter 3 (sections 1-6 and 10 only), Chapter 5 (sections 1-12 only, unless you are ambitious), and Chapter 7 of our textbook, Joseph Murdoch's Illuminating Engineering. Please take a set of base-case measurements in your Gujarati house. |
Lab | Experiential Learning | Architecture | SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities |
| Assignment 11 | Building Technology Laboratory |
Please design roof opening(s) for your Gujarati house and test it with a second round of daylighting measurements. |
Lab | Experiential Learning | Architecture | SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities |