January is Independent Activities Period (IAP) at MIT - 30 days of learning, excitement, and spontaneity!
IAP offers accelerated for-credit courses for its matriculated students. But, the magic is in the non-credit events open to, and taught by, MIT students, faculty, employees, and family members. This year, IAP had 700 HUNDRED events scheduled!
Some of the fun included
- the Chocolate Tour of Boston (actually, a search for "chocolate" returned seven events though I'm still confused by the one that compared karate and chocolate chip cookies)
- a sleep-deprived, weekend long Mystery Hunt which apparently drew scores of puzzlers from elsewhere
- lots of robotics:
- a month long class that teaches robot design and ends with a public competition
- an opportunity to build an underwater remotely-operated vehicle and keep it!
- meetings of the Mars Society to discuss the robots that will be needed when humans settle on the red planet
- courses only MIT would offer - "How Baseball, Poker, and Fermat Teach Us the Best Way to Elect the President"
I definitely did not do enough of these! I did, though, get some work done on my thesis (see the current state of the draft under the Professional tab), spent some time at home, and made a quick trip to Washington.
And, I had a great weekend in Stowe, Vermont with about twenty members of the extended Sloan Fellows family. A group of Fellows, partners, and children went for a weekend ski trip. Even though the weather's been warm, there was enough snow for neophytes like me to take a lesson. Truth be told, I was pretty unsuccessful, but could see how much fun it would be. Navigating reminded me of counter-steering on a motorcycle. And, I'm sure with another lesson, I would learn how to stop!
IAP offers accelerated for-credit courses for its matriculated students. But, the magic is in the non-credit events open to, and taught by, MIT students, faculty, employees, and family members. This year, IAP had 700 HUNDRED events scheduled!
Some of the fun included
- the Chocolate Tour of Boston (actually, a search for "chocolate" returned seven events though I'm still confused by the one that compared karate and chocolate chip cookies)
- a sleep-deprived, weekend long Mystery Hunt which apparently drew scores of puzzlers from elsewhere
- lots of robotics:
- a month long class that teaches robot design and ends with a public competition
- an opportunity to build an underwater remotely-operated vehicle and keep it!
- meetings of the Mars Society to discuss the robots that will be needed when humans settle on the red planet
- courses only MIT would offer - "How Baseball, Poker, and Fermat Teach Us the Best Way to Elect the President"
I definitely did not do enough of these! I did, though, get some work done on my thesis (see the current state of the draft under the Professional tab), spent some time at home, and made a quick trip to Washington.
And, I had a great weekend in Stowe, Vermont with about twenty members of the extended Sloan Fellows family. A group of Fellows, partners, and children went for a weekend ski trip. Even though the weather's been warm, there was enough snow for neophytes like me to take a lesson. Truth be told, I was pretty unsuccessful, but could see how much fun it would be. Navigating reminded me of counter-steering on a motorcycle. And, I'm sure with another lesson, I would learn how to stop!
