MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000
Many milestones marked Academic year 2000. There were significant advances in academic and educational programs, faculty hiring, research support and the financial management of MIT. Some of these developments are described in this summary. These and other developments are described in the reports of programs, departments, and schools.
Several appointments were made to the Academic Council in AY 2000. Dr. Isaac M. Colbert was appointed Dean of Graduate Students. Dr. Colbert previously served as Senior Associate Dean of the Graduate School, as well as Acting Dean. Professor Steven R. Lerman, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was appointed Chair of the Faculty. He replaced Professor Lotte Bailyn of the Sloan School of Management who completed her two-year term.
MIT lost the service of an outstanding academic leader and administrator when Professor Robert Birgeneau resigned as Dean of Science to become President of the University of Toronto. Professor Robert J. Silbey, Director of the Center for Material Science and Engineering, is serving as Interim Dean while a search is underway for a new dean. It is with sadness that we record the passing of Professor Jonathan Allen of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Research Laboratory for Electronics. His leadership will be missed.
Another appointment of note was that of Dr. Vijay Kumar as Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing. As part of an administrative reorganization, Ms. Lydia Snover joined the Provost’s Office as Assistant to the Provost for Institutional Research.
The Institute continued its commitment to aggressive renovation of physical facilities and to the construction of new facilities. The process for prioritizing and planning space renovations is led by Chancellor Larry Bacow who is Chair of the Committee for Review of Space Planning (CRSP). In fiscal year 2000 MIT allocated over $24 million in funds for this purpose. Several major renovations were begun in AY 2000. These include the staged renovation of the Dreyfus Chemistry Building, Building 18, and the renovation of Building 33 for research and teaching facilities for the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The third-year of a long-range plan for renovation of the classrooms in the main complex also was concluded.
In the spring of 2000 MIT broke ground on the construction of the Ray and Maria Stata Center. This approximately 420,000 square foot facility will be the home of the Laboratory of Computer Science, the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. The Stata Center will also house a major childcare facility, teaching facilities and significant social space for students, staff and faculty.
The Stata Center is only one of the new construction projects underway. The Media Laboratory is being expanded by the addition of the Ozawa Center for Future Children, which is being designed by the architect Fumihiko Maki. The building will be located adjacent to the Wiesner building at the corner of Ames and Amherst streets. The project is entering schematic design with construction scheduled to begin in late in 2001 on the site of the existing building E10.
A new undergraduate residence is being designed by architect Steven Holl to be located on Vassar Street. The dormitory will house 350 undergraduates and the added capacity makes it possible to assign on campus housing to all incoming freshman. The construction documents for the design are near completion and construction will begin as soon as permitting for the construction site is completed.
MIT also is moving forward on increasing the amount of housing for graduate students. This includes the creation of a new graduate residence for 120 students at 224 Albany Street (NW30). This facility will be ready for occupation in fall 2001. Design also is underway for a new graduate residence for 600-750 students at the corner of Sydney and Pacific Streets.
Finally, the final planning for the Sports and Fitness Center have been completed and groundbreaking is scheduled for October of 2001.
Planning for facilities has been greatly aided by the work of the Olin Partnership on the creation of a new master plan for MIT. This process began with a charette in 1999 and will be completed in 2001.
Faculty recruitment continued at a vigorous level as departments continued to recruit faculty to fill openings created by the 1996 early retirement program. In Academic Year 2000, 39 faculty were hired at untenured ranks and nine tenured faculty were recruited. Of these (tenured and untenured) 13 are women and three are minorities. During 2000 23 MIT faculty were awarded tenure within MIT. Of these, five were women. The recruitment of minority faculty remains extremely challenging.
Efforts to recruit women faculty and to enhance their mentoring and careers were moved forward with the creation of women’s committees in the five schools under the oversight of the provost. With the leadership of Professor Nancy Hopkins of the Department of Biology and Lotte Bailyn of the Sloan School of Management, funding for several faculty initiatives has come from the Ford and Atlantic Philanthropic Foundations. The efforts of the women committees are being aided by Marsha Orent, staff to the committees.
The Institute also expanded its commitment to the career development of untenured faculty by starting a program of junior faculty research leaves to give untenured faculty a semester to concentrate totally on research and scholarship.
MIT continued to expand its programs with new graduate degree offerings in several areas. Of special note is the Masters of Engineering Program in Biomedical Engineering offered by the Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Health (BEH). This program is meant as a capstone professional degree for MIT undergraduate students who are interested in a career in biomedical engineering or healthcare and is built on the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate minor offered through BEH.
MIT also continued to expand its efforts in neuroscience. The generous gift by Patrick and Lore McGovern this year led to the establishment of the McGovern Institute for Brian Research (MIBR) as a research institute within MIT. The MIBR will bring together faculty with varied backgrounds to work on important problems in neurobiology, systems neuroscience and cognitive science. Professor Phillip Sharp will be the founding Director of the MIBR.
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor Program had eight visiting faculty during the academic year and had a significant impact on increasing diversity among the faculty and teaching staff. Efforts are underway to increase the number of visitors in this important program.
Six new Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellows were named this year: Professors Rohan Abeyaratne of the Mechanical Engineering Department, John Belcher of the Department Physics, Ernest Cravalho of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dava Newman of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Steven Pinker of the Brain and Cognitive Science Department and Jacquelyn Yanch of the Chemical Engineering Department.
Fiscal year 2000 represented the completion of the budgetary cycle begun in 1998, which included a new process of budget approval by the Executive Committee of the Corporation, coupled with a larger distribution of funds from the endowment. The Fiscal Year financial performance was on-budget, closing with a small (approximately $2 million) surplus. This budget included funds for the renovation program, less income from graduate tuition, and funding of the presidential graduate fellowship program.
The financing of operations was greatly aided by continued performance of the Institute’s investments. The endowment began fiscal year 2000 at $4.3 billion up from approximately $1.4 billion in 1990. Although the final returns for fiscal year 2000 are not yet available, we expect another exceptional year.
Fiscal Year 2000 also marked the launching of the MIT capital campaign to raise $1.5 billion in endowment and expendable gifts. The campaign officially began on November 6, 1999 and was launched by the magnificent gift by Dr. Kenan Sahin of $100 million. The campaign total stood at just under $1 billion at the end of the year. In a related event, the Biology Building 68 was named in honor of David Koch,’62 in recognition of his generosity to the Department of Biology and MIT.
The budget for fiscal year 2001 continues to be aggressive with respect to reliance on income from the endowment and on gifts from private sources. We believe that this change represents an important step in the evolution of the Institution away from a exceedingly heavy reliance on federal support. The capital campaign is an important next step in this evolution; its success will play a major role in the ability of MIT to continue to aggressively modernize our facilities and to remain competitive for recruiting the best faculty and students.
Planning and budgeting for the continued excellence of MIT remains a major focus. Starting with planning for Fiscal Year 2001 budget proposals will include reporting of all funds used within each academic unit–both institute general budget, endowment income and other funds– in an effort to better reconcile budget priorities.
Academic Year 2000 saw several major developments in educational programs at MIT. Most notably, the MIT faculty approved a new communications requirement for all undergraduate students at MIT. The new communications requirement will include both written and oral components and will be integrated into all four years of education.
The year also saw the launch of a number of important developments in education. The gift of $10 million from Brit and Alex d’Arbeloff was used to launch a suite of experiments in education focussed on the freshman year experience. The I-campus partnership with Microsoft also began funding experiments in the use of information technology in education. Both of these initiatives have been organized with the added planning of the MIT Council on Educational Technology (MITCET), which was established to advise the senior administration on strategic issues involving information technology and to help select major initiatives and monitor progress.
The MITCET has carried out a strategic planning exercise focussed on how best to develop distance education technology focussed on continuing education for our alumni and partners. This planning will end in fall of 2000 with several specific recommendations for specific experiments and programs. The Educational Media Creation Center (EMCC) was established in 1999 to focus our efforts on developing robust and sustainable software platforms for building web-based education tools. Several of the programs within the I-Campus and d’Arbeloff initiatives are being developed by the EMCC.
In the fall of 1999 the first subjects began in the distance education program between MIT and the two major universities in Singapore, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. The program, referred to as the Singapore/MIT Alliance (SMA), involves five professional masters programs in engineering and doctoral research education co-taught by MIT and Singapore faculty, with most of the MIT teaching being delivered by a combination of synchronous and asynchronous communications technology. The first two programs in advanced materials and high performance computing were launched in summer of 1999. The first group of master’s students graduated from this program in July 2000 from the National University of Singapore. A program in manufacturing began in July 2000. The support for education and research from the Singapore-MIT Alliance continued to grow. This partnership will bring almost $7 million per year in research support to MIT once the program is fully funded in 2001.
MIT and Cambridge University of England have entered into a historical cooperation called the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI). The CMI will sponsor faculty and undergraduate student exchanges, as well as joint teaching using distance education technology. The CMI program is entering its planning stages and will begin in earnest in fall 2001.
MIT remains the preeminent research university combining world-leading research across a spectrum of disciplines with intense undergraduate and graduate education. Efforts in Fiscal Year 1999 have continued to focus on securing increased federal support of research and increasing research support from corporations, foundations and international sources to diversify the support of our programs. Several new industrial partnerships were launched in 2000. These include Microsoft, Dupont, Nanovation, and Hewlitt-Packard, each representing commitments in excess of $3 million per year in support. These partnerships join existing relationships with Merrill-Lynch, NTT, Ford, Amgen and Merck.
These efforts and the continual strength in federally supported research led to a modest increase in sponsored research on campus, which was up 2.1% to $384 million in fiscal year 2000 from $376 million in 1999. More importantly, the portion of this research volume bearing Financial and Administrative (F&A) Costs rose 5% in fiscal year 2000 to $179 million. The Federal government continued to dominate this budget, accounting for approximately $301.6 million or 78.5%, followed by industry at $61.5 million or 16% The Lincoln Laboratory research volume in Fiscal Year 2000 was $348.3 million, down slightly from Fiscal Year 1999 at $353.3 million.
This report marks the completion of my second year as provost.
Robert A. Brown
The Center for Advanced Educational Services (CAES) is the fulcrum for MIT’s efforts in distance learning, technology-enabled education, media production and delivery, and in non-degree lifelong learning–both on and off campus. The missions of CAES, encompassing education, research, and service, are:
To design and conduct significant experiments in technology-enabled learning, using pedagogical models made feasible by the new technologies.
To provide a wide range of technical multimedia and video services to the broader MIT community.
To create and distribute MIT educational offerings within MIT and world-wide, often using technologies facilitating synchronous and asynchronous distance learning.
To provide lifelong learning opportunities to practicing engineers and managers, both on and off-campus.
To undertake research and development in the application of computing and communication technologies directed toward the goal of improving the effectiveness and productivity of learning and teaching.
CAES has assembled under its ‘umbrella’ six operating units that harness the talents of faculty and staff in technology-enabled education, media production and delivery, and lifelong learning. We are unaware of any other institution of higher education that has the breadth and depth of capability in these areas within one integrated facility. This allows CAES to undertake complex multifaceted projects requiring talent and technology from several of its units at one time, usually under the guidance of a full time project manager. CAES is structured as a holding company of individually managed operational units and interacts with schools, departments, centers, and laboratories Institute-wide. CAES is an integral player in the delivery of educational content with various MIT partners as described below.
Our two academic units are the Advanced Study Program (ASP)–created in the early 1960’s–and the Professional Institute (PI) which is celebrating its 51st Anniversary year. The ASP, led by Ted Korelitz, serves domestic and foreign students who wish to further their education, usually after receiving their undergraduate degree, but for whom matriculating towards a Masters or Ph.D. is not immediately envisioned. Academic credit and a certificate are given to those completing MIT courses on-campus and via distance learning. The PI offers a non-credit continuing education curriculum of 50-60 three to five day long programs each summer in the areas of Computer Sciences, Systems, Design, Materials, Control, Biotechnology and Management. For the past three years it has also offered a smaller Winter Session.
Our research and development unit is the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives. CECI, headed by Professor Steven Lerman, advances the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice use of computation and communication technologies for learning and teaching. Founded in 1991, it joined CAES in 1995.
There are three units that create, deliver, and maintain various multimedia content. MIT Video Productions (MVP) provides a broad range of video recording and editing services. MVP, directed by Lawrence Gallagher, maintains and operates broadcast, post-editing, video-server and web-streaming technologies in our newly created electronic classrooms. The Educational Media Creation Center (EMCC), launched last fall, focuses on production of web-based interactive courseware and architecture. EMCC administratively housed in CAES and is a joint effort in conjunction with Academic Computing, headed by Dr. Vijay Kumar. The EMCC is co-directed by Richard Larson and Vijay Kumar. Lastly, digitization and compression, Internet2, and video-server retrieval of any archived programming is managed by the Streaming Media and Compression Services (SMCS). SMCS, directed by David Mycue, and formerly reported in this report as the Digital Information Technology Systems Facility, is now fully operational and works in parallel with MVP and EMCC.
CAES educational offerings have benefited learners of all ages. These include K-12 learners who download world-wide news from our web-site video archives, on-campus students who are beginning to see the fruits of our labors in on-campus technology-enabled learning, and lifelong learners who take MIT subjects and programs either on-campus or via distance learning.
Fiscal Year 2000 was the fourth full year of operation of the new CAES. Highlights include:
Best financial performance to date of the new CAES, with significant funds transferred back to MIT.
Completion of PIVoT, Physics Interactive Video Tutor, our flagship product in on-campus technology-enabled education.
Formation of the EMCC, with CAES’ former Hypermedia Teaching Facility (HTF) being a major asset placed into the EMCC.
Successful completion of the first full year of operation of the Singapore MIT Alliance distance learning program.
Acceptance by MIT of a radically new design using fiber optics to centralize at CAES control, support and distribution of MIT’s distance learning programming.
National recognition of our leadership role in technology-enabled education, exemplified by invited professional presentations and congressional testimony.
Additional details provide more evidence of the exciting year that CAES has just completed.
Reflecting the exponentially growing importance of streaming media in education, MVP has continued to be the fastest growing unit in the Center. Last year MVP experienced a 40% increase in services provided as measured by revenue billed.
The SMA program may be the world’s most ambitious point-to-point distance learning program. It offers up to six hours a day of direct live connectivity between our Cambridge, Massachusetts campus to one or two campuses in Singapore — at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). A team of CAES technical staff, working closely with SMA Director Mert Flemings and Deputy Director Tony Patera, completed the first full academic year of synchronous delivery of two degree tracks of the MIT/Singapore Alliance (SMA). The live signal was dual streamed (video and data) through Internet2 from the Triad in Building 9. Round-the-clock learning was supported by an interactive web-site and asynchronous video streaming maintained by the EMCC. SMA Internet2 delivery had a success rate of 98%. Considering the size and complexity of the SMA program, we are unaware of any other comparable production use of Internet2.
During the fall 1999 semester, a "beta release" of PIVoT was offered to all 800+ MIT freshmen who registered for the core subject 8.01- Newtonian Mechanics, AKA "Physics 101." We are proud to report that the highly complex web-site, fed from three different servers and incorporating over 60 hours of digitized video, did not crash once during the entire fall semester. Even more importantly, the 8.01 students, in an extensive evaluation, reported that PIVoT helped them significantly in understanding what has traditionally been the most difficult subject for MIT freshmen.
Other CAES highlights:
Apart from the multimedia production services already mentioned in this report, MVP also provides the same services to any MIT department, laboratory, or center that needs in-house technical expertise and broadcast, videoconferencing or distance learning facilities. MVP produced many scripted and finely edited short programs. A sampling includes:
Biomaterials and How They'll Change Our Lives with Robert Langer (distributed via the Alumni Association streaming web page)
CAES Digital Road Show (premiered in March, 2000)
Educating for the Future (premiered at the Microsoft Alliance signing)
Flesh, Machines and the Physical World with Rodney Brooks
Remembering Margaret MacVicar (premiered in December 1999)
Singapore-MIT Alliance (premiered at Fall ‘99 SMA Board meeting)
Spheres (produced and distributed as a Video News Release)
Perspectives of MIT (premiered at the Millennium Ball)
Civil and Environmental Engineering Anniversary Symposium (Videotaped, edited, digitized and distributed via CD —ROM)
The MVP Director provided a leadership role in the renovation and technical support of the Institute’s distance education classrooms and facilities. MVP initiated a plan that will result in distance education facilities throughout the Institute being centrally controlled from Building 9. This ambitious plan will result in a significant saving of classroom real estate, transmission equipment and technical support. We plan on connecting to several more classrooms over the next few years.
The PIVoT Project is nearing its completion. It was used extensively the past year in 8.01 and will continue to be a core resource in that subject for the foreseeable future. A major addition to PIVoT this past year was Prof. Lewin’s 8.01 class lectures; lectures were videotaped during the fall 1999 semester. The 35 taped hour-long lectures were digitized by SMCS and posted to the PIVoT site during the semester, with a one-week delay following each live lecture. Some students reported an enhanced ability to listen to and absorb the lectures as they were delivered, rather than needing to concentrate on taking notes, as they knew they would be able to review the lectures later at their own pace from the PIVoT site. In the future, lectures will be available on PIVoT both in their entirety and as shorter, easy-to-access video segments.
The Physics Video Tutor project (PIVoT) team has embarked on a three-year collaboration with the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at the WGBH Education Foundation to research web-accessibility for deaf and blind users. This research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, will explore ways to create video captions displaying symbols and equations for deaf users, narrated video descriptions for blind users, and best practices in overall site design for optimum web-access by all users.
The evaluation of our students’ use of 8.01 of the beta version of PIVoT was directed in Fall 1999 by Dr. Alberta Lipson, Associate Dean of Educational Research. The purpose of this study was to learn about the web-site’s functionality, student usage patterns, student attitudes toward PIVoT, and whether use of the web-site had any impact on final physics grades. A student survey was conducted last November; it was completed by 45% of enrolled students. A follow-up small focus group was organized in December. User data was collected both in logs that recorded access to the web-site, and in the PIVoT database, which recorded how many times various media elements were requested. The results of the evaluation indicate a notably favorable experience among students who used PIVoT and have been summarized in a report that is available upon request.
CAES is the home for three of the current Microsoft I-Campus initiatives. The first, headed by Prof. Peter Donaldson, focuses on the use of Microsoft Research's prototype of video commenting software in teaching Shakespeare. The second project, directed by Prof. John Belcher, will completely revise the teaching of 8.02. The D’Arbeloff Fund and the School of Science also support this second initiative. The third, directed by Professor Richard C. Larson, is "Inventing the Global Campus." CECI, the R&D arm of CAES, is the central point for all of this research.
SMA Spring survey of students showed a high level of satisfaction with the technical delivery of the program. During the past year, a second distance-learning classroom, Room 1-390, was specifically redesigned for SMA purposes, and is expected to go on-line in September 2000.
The Educational Media Creation Center (EMCC) was announced to the MIT community in the fall of 1999. This year has been a foundation-setting one, with a focus on defining the mission, establishing and building a team, and building reference design architecture while taking care of established projects. The reference design architecture encompasses the requirements of and approaches to supplying the application platforms needed to meet the production demands for sustainable, qualified web-based educational materials. Also, the second floor of Building 9 is being extensively renovated to house EMCC, starting in Sept. 2000.
The Summer 1999 registration in Professional Institute (PI) programs was disappointing at 907 registrations. Summer 2000 will have about 1100 registrations, which is in the normal range. Factors impacting the 1999 enrollments included: many Program brochures were mailed late; several sectors had poor business conditions: fibers, textiles, chemical processing, petroleum, the Pacific Basin and Latin America; and a general apprehension about Y2K. 25 major U.S. universities reported a 25% drop in 1999 summer session enrollments. Much was attributed to supervisors’ reluctance to be without their full staffs in case of unforeseen problems. The Winter 2000 session continued at a modest rate, in the pattern of earlier years. PI continues the effort to expand it.
Now in the fourth year of alliance with PBS/The Business and Technology Network (a subsidiary of NTUC–National Technological University Corporation), CAES continues to produce non-credit short courses for distribution on the network. Course distribution is simultaneously produced in three formats: a) live satellite broadcast with web-site; b) videotapes with web-site and c) video-streaming with web-site. New programs this year included: EBusiness 2000 (co-taught by a group of faculty from the Sloan School (Erik Brynolffson, Thomas Malone, Stuart Madnick, Chrysanthos Dellarocas, and James Short), Java Revolution (Steven Lerman and V. Judson Harward) and Integrated Supply Chain Management (updated version, with Jeremy Shapiro). Other PBS/NTUC courses repeated live broadcast earlier and rebroadcast by video-stream included: Internet Commerce, Advanced Internet Commerce, Optimizing the Supply Chain, Revenue Management, Use of Information Technology in Project Management. Certificates of completion were issued to 700 learners during this reporting period.
The ASP recorded more in accordance with past performance, largely due to two factors: increased enrollment in the on-campus programs (84 Fellows for FY1999—2000 vs. 69 Fellows for FY1998—1999); and introduction of the Distance Learning courses in Systems Dynamics. Total enrollment for the whole period almost doubled in large part due to the series of courses offered by Senior Lecturer James Hines and others. The strong economy and different marketing strategies contributed to the increase in the number of Fellows this past year.
SMCS completed its first full year of operation. In addition to supporting our major projects, as already reported herein, including the Jewish Women’s Archive, the Shakespeare Electronic Archive, and Calculus Revisited with Herb Gross. Streaming video and live webcasts of lecture series also grew dramatically. Although too many to list they included the Technology and Culture Forum events, the God & Computers Lecture Series, and the Civil and Environmental Colloquium 200 Series.
After over thirty years producing high-quality video courses and publishing two books, CAES has phased out the program as of January 1, 2000. Videotape masters and all rights reverted to the faculty author or were transferred to the MIT Archives and MIT Museum. Publishing rights for Out of the Crisis, and The New Economics reverted to the W. Edwards Deming Institute. MIT Press will publish soft copy editions of both books in Fall 2000. CAES retains the copyright and distributions rights to the Deming videotape series CAES produced on the same subject.
Highlights of the previous section indicate that CAES has been quite successful at accomplishing desired milestones during the past year.
One of the major goals of CAES continues to be the integration of each of the operating units with one another. This year, the creation of EMCC makes such integration even more significant. We envision the boundaries between it and the other units of CAES as porous, with staff from one unit involved at various times in working groups with other CAES staff. The matrix-organization approach continues to be successful. Some specific examples include the following:
PBS Business Channel courses involve staff from EMCC, CECI, SMCS and MVP.
The PIVoT project and the Ford Masters’ Voices project are managed from within CECI, but the project funding was obtained from CAES-wide efforts and the project staff is drawn from EMCC, CECI, SMCS and MVP.
The distance learning production and faculty support for the SMA program involve coordinated efforts from staff at EMCC, CECI, SMCS and MVP.
Another major goal discussed in last year's report is enhancing our capabilities in educational evaluation. Towards this end, CECI has a visiting scholar, Prof. Judy Dori, from Technion University, visiting for two years. Her expertise is in the evaluation of science teaching innovations, particularly those using new technologies. CECI is also involved in the search in the Dean of Undergraduate Education's office for a senior staff member in educational evaluation who would be an Associate Director of the Teaching and Learning Laboratory.
One of the major goals of CAES when it was redesigned in September 1995 was to engage students in our work. In 1995, there were no students engaged in research, production or thesis work. In 2000, we can report a far different story as shown in the following table.
Table 1. Student Activity
|
# |
Student Type |
|
2 |
High School Interns |
|
27 |
Undergraduates |
|
9 |
Graduate Student On-Line Tutors |
|
6 |
Graduate Research Assistants |
|
6 |
Northeastern University Cooperative Students |
During the previous three years, as reported in earlier Reports to the President, CAES worked with PBS/The Business Channel to deliver video-rich professional programs leading to a certificate. On July 1, 1999 PBS/The Business Channel was sold to the National Technological University Corporation (NTUC) and the program was renamed The Business and Technology Network. NTUC is the leading provider of advanced technical education and training from a distance. An accredited, degree-granting university, NTUC offers a wide range of for-credit and professional development courses delivered via leading-edge telecommunications technologies from a working alliance of universities. MIT is one of the alliance universities. The programming schedule has also expanded to include repeat programs that cycle continuously throughout the calendar year. The project has reached a steady state of production this year.
FUTURE PLANS
CAES plans to launch MIT-World next year. MIT-World is a unique effort for a university to reach its alumni though the Internet. It will be a 24X7 streaming TV station over the Internet. The program content will be selected lectures, colloquia, seminars and special events from the MIT campus. The web-site will be password protected, only available to MIT alumni and the on-campus MIT community. Supporting corporate sponsors (we will be seeking five) will benefit by allowing up to 200 of their employees access to MIT-World.
MIT Video Productions will continue to play a leadership role in the design and coordination of "Level 5" technology-equipped classrooms, and rooms established to support distance learning. A significant space renovation will occur late next year on the fourth floor of Building 9 to support the MVP central control room supporting all of MIT’s newly equipped distance learning classrooms.
The third degree track for SMA, Innovation in Manufacturing Systems and Technology (IMST), will begin in July 2000. Construction of a state-of-the-art central control room in Bldg. 9 and renovation of 1-390 is underway and will be operational for the Fall 2000 term.
The Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) project, focusing on shifting 8.02 from lecture/recitation format to a more active learning, studio style pedagogy, represents a major step in this direction. This project will be have significant funding per year for at least the next two years.
The MIT Council on Educational Technology has recommended that MIT develop plans for a larger research unit in the area of educational technology. Prof. Lerman, a member of the Council, will lead a planning group to look at possible options for such a unit. CECI may well be the nucleus for this type of group.
During the coming months, the PIVoT team will take measures to ensure that the software infrastructure supporting PIVoT is generic so that it can be easily adapted for video and text content from any subject. The next funded implementation of the PIVoT technology is the Ford Motor Company Masters’ Voices project sponsored by the Ford-MIT Collaboration. The centerpiece of this web-based tutor will be videotaped interviews with senior brake system engineers at Ford, in which we will attempt to elicit and capture their unique experiences and craft knowledge learned over many years. The goal of the Masters’ Voices web-tutor is to help preempt costly brake system design and manufacturing errors by imparting the master engineers’ valuable knowledge to younger engineers, distributed via Ford’s intranet.
Opportunities for the creation of other web-based video tutors have developed with two other MIT courses: Linear Algebra (18.06), taught by Prof. Gilbert Strang, and Circuits and Electronics (6.002), to be taught by Prof. Paul Gray. Last year’s funding from the Lord Foundation allowed us to videotape all of Prof. Strang’s 18.06 lectures given in the Fall 1999 semester. They were immediately put onto a web page for student access, and with future funding they could become the foundation of a web-based tutor similar to PIVOT. Prof. Gray will be teaching 6.002 this coming year, and new Lord Foundation funds will allow him to prepare his lecture materials this year in anticipation of videotaping the lectures the following academic year (2001-2002), in order to create the beginning of a web-based tutor for 6.002.
EMCC will provide one or more application platforms that are capable of meeting the production demands for web-based educational technologies. We will complete the first phase of the School of Engineering web-site and begin preparations for later phases of this project. We will also continue to provide support for our other current projects, even as we provide more support to the I-Campus projects.
PBS/NTUC will develop a new set of certificate-based professional development programs for calendar year 2001.
Following the model of the Ford/CAES program, Masters’ Voices, CAES will seek additional corporate R&D sponsors to further its leading edge technology development in streaming media and video tutors. We hope to sign up at least two new corporate sponsors for this effort during the next year.
Just before the close of the year, General Motor’s Tech Ed Program (TEP) advised ASP that our proposal to offer a distance learning course in System Dynamics (in addition to the Welding & Joining course) was accepted. The acceptance of the Systems Dynamics course via video streaming represents a milestone in TEP’s strategy vis-à-vis bringing quality education to GM employees. ASP hopes to launch an Affiliates Program in the next academic year.
Dr. J. Murray, a Senior Research Scientist at CECI, left MIT to take a senior faculty position at Georgia Tech. We added a staff support position to CECI to provide assistance to CECI's Director, Professor S. Lerman who is in the middle of a two-year term as Chair of the MIT faculty. M.Bessette will join CECI's staff this summer working full-time on the TEAL/8.02 project, primarily focusing on the creating of animations illustrating basic concepts in electricity and magnetism and on the development of "hands-on" experiments for the studio-style classes. S. Bjornestad, a doctoral candidate at the University of Bergen, has been a visiting scholar at CECI this year. Prof. J. Heines, a faculty member at the University of Lowell, spent a sabbatical year involved in CECI activities (as well as broader activities in CAES).
The EMCC formed last year and has added a number of personnel to the team either through hiring or transfer from other departments. M. Barker comes from Information Systems to manage the center. N. Sonwalkar comes from the Hypermedia Teaching Facility to provide instructional design and pedagogical integrity to the center. G. Willman comes from Information Systems to support faculty on the SMA project, joining P. Hess who was hired from Brandeis University for that project. B. Bermack has been hired to act as lead developer in the application platform work. C. D. Burrus has been hired to act as system administrator for the team. B. Brophy transferred to EMCC as an administrative assistant. We also have several personnel on assignment to the EMCC from Academic Computing, including C. Counterman and K. Livingston-Vale, for their background and knowledge of instructional design. We have also been provided with financial analysis by Academic Computing resources, first from M. Brown and most recently by W. Fitzgerald. We are also hiring, currently looking for an instructional designer, senior web-developer, graphics designer, another faculty support person for SMA, and an administrative assistant.
A fulltime program assistant, C. Sardo, has been assigned to the PBS/NTUC project. She was integral to the execution of our video course program exit strategy before joining PBS/NTUC full time.
In the administrative area, M. Cerny shifted functional areas to support our External Relations Manager.
Richard Larson presented "Learning and Life" at MIT Technology Day.
Publications include the following:
Y.J. Dori and R.T. Tal. (2000). Formal and Informal Collaborative Projects: Engaging in Industry with Environmental Awareness. Science Education, 84, 1, 95-113.
"How Much Is 10 Percent Worth?" by Michael D. Barker, PMP, and John M. Nevison, PMP, PM Network, April 2000, pp. 61-66.
Richard Larson participated in numerous presentations in the area of technology-enabled education: US House Committee on Science, "Technology-Enabled Education and the Internet. Distance Learning and the Research University"; Buckingham, Browne and Nichols, "Professional Day Keynote", MIT Alumni Club of Colorado, Indiana Teaching of Management Science Conference, National Science Foundation, "Where are we going? The Brave New World and its Pitfalls"; Association Internationale des Etudiants en Science Economiques et Commerciales In Vienna, Austria, "Technology-Enabled Education. What is it and Where is it Going?"
In the areas of operations research he presented at: INFORMS Conference, "A Probabilistic Inventory/Routing Problem Heuristic" with Berman and Jolliffe; and Vanderbilt University, "Frontiers in Services."
Nishikant Sonwalkar presented at the following: "New Pedagogical Models for Teachers Training", at the Massachusetts Computer Using Educators’ conference; presented with A. Kovgan, and R. J. Wiggins;" A Comparative Evaluation of Desktop Learning Modalities: Desktop Learning in the 21st Century and Beyond" in the Proceedings of International Conference on Technology Supported Learning Meeting Place of the International Telelearning Industry; "Distance Learning: The Killer Application for the Internet Economy" at TiECON-Atlantic’99 and "Entrepreneurship@Internet Speed" and "New Methods of Course Delivery" presented at the Syllabus Conference and Workshop in Boston. He was a Judge in the Department of Defense Shootout on Learning Management Technologies.
More information about this center can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www-caes.mit.edu/.
Richard C. Larson
The mission of the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives (CECI) is to advance the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice uses of computation and communication technologies for learning and teaching. CECI is the research and advanced development unit of the Center for Advanced Educational Services.
CECI undertakes research and development in the application of computing and communication technologies, directed toward the goal of improving the effectiveness and productivity of learning and teaching.
Implicit in this mission statement is that new technologies can improve the quality of education in many areas and that a sustained research focus on the uses of technology will, over time, yield major improvements in how people learn. An interdepartmental, MIT-wide center such as CECI is essential because this type of research does not fit well within traditional departmental organizational structures.
CECI undertakes research that:
Explores new technologies of relevance to learning and teaching;
Creates new educational applications of technology; and
Studies the effectiveness of technology and applications in improving learning
Professor Steven Lerman and Dr. V. Judson Harward offered a course on the Java Revolution for PBS The Business and Technology Network. This course was delivered synchronously via satellite and asynchronously by Internet-based, streaming digital video.
CECI is the home for two of the current Microsoft I-Campus initiatives. The first, headed by Prof. Peter Donaldson, focuses on the use of Microsoft Research's prototype of video commenting software in the teaching of Shakespeare. The second project, directed by Prof. John Belcher, will completely revise the teaching of 8.02. This second initiative is also supported by the d'Arbeloff Fund and the School of Science.
CECI staff members continue to be deeply involved in the educational technology aspects of the Singapore-MIT Alliance. We are working with the EMCC to develop the Internet-based software platform for all the SMA courses. We have also been evaluating proprietary software systems for Internet course delivery and examining tools for automatic segmentation and tagging of video.
The Physics Video Tutor project (PIVOT) involves staff across CAES but is housed and managed within CECI. This project is nearing its completion. It was used extensively the past year in 8.01 and will continue to be a core resource in that subject for the foreseeable future.
One of the major goals of CECI continues to be the integration of our activities with those in the rest of CAES. This year, the creation of EMCC makes such integration even more significant. We envision the boundaries between CECI and the other units of CAES as porous, with staff from our unit involved at various times in working groups with other CAES staff. The approach continues to be successful. Some specific examples include the following:
The PBS Business Channel course taught by CECI personnel involves staff from EMCC and MIT Video.
The PIVOT project is managed from within CECI, but the project funding was obtained from CAES-wide efforts and the project staff is drawn from several CAES units.
CECI staff members are working with EMCC and other CAES staff on supporting the Singapore-MIT Alliance program. Most of our work is in the area of developing new software and evaluating products for use by SMA.
Various CECI projects are making use of CAES video digitizing services.
Another major goal discussed in last year’s report is enhancing our capabilities in educational evaluation. Towards this end, we have a visiting scholar, Professor Judy Dori, from Technion University visiting CECI for two years. Her expertise is in the evaluation of science teaching innovations, particularly those using new technologies. CECI is also involved in the search in the Dean of Undergraduate Education's office for a senior staff member in educational evaluation who would be an Associate Director of the Teaching and Learning Laboratory.
A third goal was the development of major, large-scale projects. The TEAL project, focusing on shifting 8.02 from lecture/recitation format to a more active learning, studio style pedagogy, represents a major step in this direction. This project will be over $1 million per year for at least the next two years.
One of the major issues for CECI is its role in the Institute. The MIT Council on Educational Technology has recommended that MIT develop plans for a larger research unit in the area of educational technology. Professor Lerman, a member of the Council, will lead a planning group to look at possible options for such a unit. Clearly, CECI may well be the nucleus for this type of group. One of the central issues will be the mix of internally and externally focused research appropriate for such a unit.
We continue to have a strong interest in expanding our ability to conduct state-of-the-art evaluations of educational innovations involving new technologies. While Professor Dori has significantly improved our ability to do research in this area, she will leave at the end of the next academic year to return to her faculty position at Technion University. We hope that at least one full-time research staff member will be added to CECI by that time.
Finally, we believe that the long term stability of CECI’s funding would be enhanced by the addition of at least one more large-scale project. This would reduce the year-to-year fluctuations of research support.
Dr. Janet Murray, a Senior Research Scientist at CECI, left MIT to take a senior faculty position at Georgia Tech. Her expertise in the area of interactive design and her close ties to the School of Humanities has left a considerable gap in CECI’s staff.
We added a staff support position to CECI to provide assistance to CECI’s Director, Professor Steven Lerman. He is in the middle of a two year term as Chair of the MIT Faculty, and we expect that role will require additional administrative support that cannot be provided by the current staff.
Mr. Mark Bessette will join CECI’s staff this summer. He will work full-time on the TEAL/8.02 project, primarily focusing on the creating of animations illustrating basic concepts in electricity and magnetism and on the development of "hands-on" experiments for the studio-style classes.
Ms. Solveig Bjornestad, a doctoral candidate at the University of Bergen, has been a visiting scholar at CECI this year.
Professor Jessie Heines, a faculty member at the University of Lowell, spent a sabbatical year involved in CECI activities (as well as broader activities in CAES). He has broad interests in software development and distance education, and provided advice to several of our ongoing projects.
Y.J. Dori and R.T. Tal. (2000). Formal and Informal Collaborative Projects: Engaging in Industry with Environmental Awareness. Science Education, 84, 1, 95-113.
N. Barnea and Y.J. Dori. (2000). Computerized Molecular Modeling the New Technology for Enhancing Model Perception among Chemistry Educators and Learners. Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 1, 1, 109-120. http://www.uoi.gr/conf_sem/cerapie/pdf/16barneaf.pdf.
R.T. Tal, Y.J. Dori and R. Lazarowitz. (2000). A Project-Based Alternative Assessment System. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 26, 2, 171-191.
Y.J. Dori and M. Barak (2000). Computerized Molecular Modeling: Enhancing Meaningful Chemistry Learning. International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2000, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA, 185-192.
Lerman, Steven R., Recent Innovations in Educational Technology at MIT, presentation to the MIT Club of Norway, April 25, 2000.
Lerman, Steven R., Multimedia Educational Research at MIT, invited presentation at the University of Bergen, Norway, April 27, 2000.
M. Cerny and J. Heines, SMA Student Survey, technical report, May, 2000.
Zbib, R., Harward, V.J. and DeLong, K.R., Distributed Triggers, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the Army Research Laboratory Federated Labs Program, March, 2000.
Richard C. Larson
The mission of the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology (CMRAE), a consortium of eight Boston-area educational and cultural institutions, is to advance our understanding of prehistoric and non-industrial culture through analysis of the structure and properties of materials associated with human activity. Plant and animal food remains, human skeletal material, as well as metal, ceramic, stone, bone, and fiber artifacts are the objects of study, along with the environments within which these materials were produced and used. At the Center for Archaeological Materials (CAM) at MIT, investigators concentrate on the materials processing technologies that transform natural materials into cultural objects.
At MIT, CAM is administered by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). DMSE established a new, undergraduate major in Archaeology and Materials, Course III-C, as well as an interdisciplinary doctoral degree program in Archaeological Materials. Both sets of curricula were reviewed by the appropriate MIT committees during the 1997—1998 academic year and were in place in 1998—1999. These are the only academic degree programs of their kind in the United States.
Archaeological Science, the CMRAE/CAM undergraduate subject introduced during the 1995—1996 academic year, and offered jointly by DMSE and the Chemistry Department, continues to enjoy high popularity among students from CMRAE institutions. Ninety-two students enrolled: 73 from MIT, five from Boston University, five from Brandeis University, three from Harvard University, one from the University of Massachusetts, and five from Wellesley College; nine faculty members from four CMRAE institutions lectured in the subject.
Professor Dorothy Hosler received a fieldwork research grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Archaeological Research to continue her survey and excavations at metal smelting sites she discovered in the Balsas River region, West Mexico. These are the first metal processing sites ever to have been identified in Mesoamerica. Professor Hosler continued her groundbreaking research into the earliest (ca. 1600 B.C.) ancient Mesoamerican processing technology for altering the properties of natural latex to produce rubber.
Professor Heather Lechtman received a grant from the H. Steinberg group in support of her work, with Thomas Tartaron and Edward V. Sayre, on the copper fasteners used on the hull of the USS Constitution. This project, aimed to establish the material from which Paul Revere and others made the fasteners and the methods by which they were fabricated, has been supported by the United States Navy.
Thomas Tartaron, who has served as CMRAE Graduate Laboratory Supervisor for the past five years, leaves the Center to assume the position of Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Yale University. Tartaron oversaw the move of the center's facilities from Building 20 to the new, fully renovated quarters on the fifth floor of Building 16. He helped design the CMRAE computation laboratory and co-taught graduate subjects in ceramics and metallurgy.
More information about this center can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/cmrae/cmrae_home.htm.
Heather Lechtman
The Council on Primary and Secondary Education (CPSE) develops programs that bring the strengths of MIT to bear on the American K—12 educational system. The projects sponsored by the Council include the MIT/Wellesley Teacher Education Program, Teacher Sabbaticals, and MIT’s Educational Outreach Programs Directory. The Council’s Chairman is also involved in a number of K—12 educational efforts, including the Science and Engineering Program for Teachers and its product, the New England Science Teachers, as well as a collaboration with the Association of American Universities (AAU).
To foster the growth of a cadre of new teachers who meet MIT’s standards of excellence in science and mathematics, yet appreciate the value of different ways of approaching and understanding a problem, MIT has created a joint program with Wellesley College, the Teacher Education Program (TEP). It prepares undergraduates for Massachusetts State Certification in mathematics and science at the middle and high school levels. This program, started in the fall of 1993, has now been integrated into MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Enrollment in TEP’s introductory Course 11.124 has steadily increased. During this five-year period, TEP has enrolled over 140 students in the initial course toward completing Massachusetts State Teacher Certification. Many of the students who have completed certification are now teaching in public middle or high schools, mostly in the Boston area. Others entering the program have been recruited by private, independent, schools, while some have gone on to become graduate students in schools of education such as Harvard, Stanford, University of California-Berkeley, and Columbia. Two students have entered the Peace Corps.
Undergraduates in the program must complete a major in the subject area in which they wish to teach. In addition, they must complete three courses at MIT and two at Wellesley; one of the latter is a seminar taken in conjunction with the required 150 hours of supervised practice teaching. Students must also complete 75 hours of supervised classroom observations.
The MIT Class of 1952 Educational Initiatives Fund was key to launching TEP in 1993. TEP was funded from 1994—1997 by the National Science Foundation through a collaborative called TEAMS-BC (Teacher Education Addressing Math and Science in Boston and Cambridge) which included MIT, Harvard, UMASS-Boston, Wheelock College and the Boston and Cambridge school systems. TEP is supervised by Professor Jeanne Bamberger. During the past academic year, Professor Eric Klopfer was hired to a new tenure track position in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning with the vision that he would succeed Professor Jeanne Bamberger as Director. Dr. Klopfer has a B.S. in Biology from Cornell and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He has taught full time in the Amherst Regional High School and prior to his MIT appointment served as a Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts. He has studied the impact of computer systems on student learning in science, math and language arts. His current research focuses on the use of educational technology in science education and he is particularly interested in computer simulation as a tool in science education. More information about TEP can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/teacher-ed/www/.
The Class of 1952 Educational Initiatives Fund also launched the MIT Teacher Fellows Program, which brings middle and high school teachers together with MIT faculty. Not only is this program effective in helping teachers develop new and creative ways to teach math and science, it allows MIT faculty to share their expertise in the development of K—12 math and science curricula.
Three high school teachers were on campus for year-long sabbaticals. They are Mr. Dana Dunnan of Masconomet High School (Topsfield, MA); Mr. Ken Brody of Boston Technical High School; and Ms. Lynda Beck of Philips Exeter Academy of Exeter, NH. Although the ’52 fund contributed to the stipends of teachers in the past, the above teachers were self-supporting. Ms. Beck and Mr. Brody will return to MIT in AY00-01 and will be joined by Isabel Courtney of the Greenwich, Connecticut school system.
Mr. Brody continues to serve as the Secretary of the New England Science Teachers (NEST). Additionally, he arranged tours of MIT by NEST teachers and students. We are pleased to have precollege educators with us. Their understanding of the needs of classroom teachers is essential to the development of MIT’s agenda in K—12 education.
The Council’s MIT’s Educational Outreach Programs has been widely circulated. Approximately 65 programs are listed; programs are either conducted on MIT’s campus or have the involvement of a person from MIT’s faculty, staff, or student body. The directory is now also available through the Council’s home page on the World Wide Web. Activities range from the Chemistry Magic Show, a 45-minute long road show of attention-getting chemistry experiments along with a running commentary, to the Voyage of the MIMI, an interdisciplinary, multimedia math and science presentation geared toward 4th-8th graders using connected educational television, software, and other instruction materials.
AAU: Since October of 1997, CPSE Chair Latanision has led a Task Force on K—16 Education, an arm of the AAU President’s Committee on Undergraduate Education. The Task Force is leading an AAU-wide Implementation Plan that includes action that will accomplish the following:
to establish on each AAU campus a Teacher Education Program that certifies disciplinary majors to teach at the precollege level and enriches the professional development of in-service teachers;
to establish an AAU Clearinghouse on Assessment Systems to analyze emerging state assessment systems in order to determine the possible utility of the data from such systems for admissions and placement purposes; and
to provide feedback to states on the relationship between these assessments and AAU universities’ admission requirements; to lead a national conversation including university faculty, administrators, K—12 representatives and others in order to:
develop a clear statement of what research universities believe are the key knowledge and skills prospective students need, not only for college admissions but for a reflective and fulfilling life, and
identify and develop as part of the national conversation a consensus on the educational research issues that AAU institutions should address. These issues might include, for example, research to identify the best use of educational technology in the teaching and learning enterprise.
The Clearinghouse is being developed with a $2.4 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which began in April 2000.
Science and Engineering Program for Teachers: Professor Latanision directs the Science and Engineering Program for Teachers, which shares the Council's goal of science literacy for all students. Key to a good education is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable teacher. Since 1989, this program has endeavored to give educators a unique perspective of how the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering are integrated to meet the technological challenges and needs of commerce and society. In 2000, the program ran from 25 June—1 July and had 61 participants from across the United States and four countries. Once again, this program was offered on a fee-bearing basis. Every participant covered his/her own expenses. One-third of the participants were fully supported (travel, room and board) by MIT Alumni Clubs, testimony to the concern of MIT Alumni for precollege education. For the first time, fifteen NEST teachers participated in the Star Logo Community of Learners Workshop aimed at developing useful, curriculum supporting modeling tools. The workshop was led by Professor Klopfer.
The alumni of this program, now totaling approximately 600 people, become members of the New England Science Teachers (NEST). This year, NEST members came to MIT's campus on June 30th for a two-day meeting to assess the program and determine future directions for the organization. The Annual Fall Retreat of NEST was held in Wachusett Valley, MA on 11—12 November 1999.
Given the changing demographics of the membership in NEST from a New England base to a more national and international base, the NEST management team proposed and the membership agreed to change the name of NEST to Network of Educators in Science and Technology.
We are very pleased to report that MIT alumnus, Johan von der Goltz has pledged a gift of $350,000 over a five-year period to sustain the Science and Engineering Program for Teachers and NEST.
More information about NEST can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/nest/www/.
Professor Latanision has continued his service to the Commonwealth by accepting membership in two statewide organizations: the Mathematics and Sciences Advisory Council and the Science and Technology Curriculum Frameworks Review Panel.
More information about the Council can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/cpse/www/.
R.M. Latanision
The Office of Educational Opportunity Programs was created in January of 1992 to organizationally locate the MIT/Wellesley Upward Bound Program, the MIT Educational Talent Search Program (ceased operation in fiscal year 1998), and all future programming serving low-income community youth. MIT has operated the Upward Bound Program since 1966 and began operation of the Educational Talent Search Program in September of 1991.
Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search are two of six US Department of Education: Special Programs for Students From Disadvantaged Backgrounds (TRIO Programs) created under the Higher Education Act of 1965.
The goal of these Programs is to provide college admission and preparatory information, academic support, advising, career information, and college and career exploration opportunities to the economically and/or educationally disadvantaged youth of Cambridge and Somerville.
To a large extent, the development of both Programs was influenced by the research done by psychologist Kurt Lewin and his associates. Lewin's hypothesis was that ego growth and academic performance were closely related. Moreover, he concluded that a developing ego needs to experience success in a warm and personal, structured environment for greatest development, in both a personal and social sense. Lastly, it was determined that this personal and social growth could be achieved through intervention outside of the institutions of family and school. Educational Talent Search and Upward Bound, through their year-round academic support and advising, represent just such interventions.
The MIT/Wellesley Upward Bound Program is a year-round, co-educational, racially and culturally diverse, college preparatory program for high school youth who reside or attend school in Cambridge. Currently in its 33rd year, the Program serves 70 academically promising young men and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. The goal of Upward Bound is twofold: to motivate client high school youth such that they persist on to post-secondary education; and, at the same time, to provide them with the fundamental skills necessary for success at the collegiate level.
The following is an overview of the Program’s operational phases:
The six-week summer program, conducted in residence at Wellesley College, is designed to provide the participants with a rigorous academic experience. Classes are taught by experienced high school teachers, and graduate and undergraduate students from MIT, Wellesley College and other local colleges and universities. Each participant is required to enroll in a Mathematics course, an English course and an elective course (Social Studies, Science or Foreign Language). Additionally, due to an agreement with the Cambridge Public Schools, students may receive summer school credit for up to two failed major courses taken during the preceding school year.
The academic year program, located at MIT, plays an equally important role in the educational development of participants. Building upon the motivation and enthusiasm developed during the summer, the academic year program is designed to assist and support the participant while in school. To accomplish this task, the following programs, staffed primarily by MIT and Wellesley College students (We continually strive to maintain MIT and Wellesley College students’ participation through our continued involvement as a pre-practicum site for the Wellesley College Teacher Certification Program and through various outreach efforts.) when appropriate, have been developed.
The Upward Bound office is open for study, on a drop-in basis, four days a week. Tutors are available to assist participants with homework problems in addition to meeting individuals and/or small groups for specific content area tutorials.
The Program offers workshops monthly to address more specialized participant needs (e.g., SAT Preparation, Computers, Study Skills Development, Time Management, Job Readiness Skills, etc.).
Also, in an effort to help participants cope with the myriad of problems; academic, social, family, etc., the Program offers support in the areas of guidance, college, career and personal adjustment. The college advising component includes campus visits to many of the local colleges and universities and attendance at two local college fairs, while the career advising component offers exposure to career options through our Speaker Series Program as well as through research on the internet.
Lastly, the Program provides numerous field trips that have as their purpose, the intellectual, social and cultural development of the participants. Such trips included; the Museum of Science, the Omni Theater, theater productions, arcade, skiing, bowling, and roller-skating.
Eighty-seven percent of the Program’s graduating seniors (Class of 2000) have enrolled in the following institutions; Art Institute of Boston, Bunker Hill Community College, Emmanuel College, Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts College of Art, Mount Ida College, Penn State, Pine Manor College, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts at Boston, University of Southern California and Virginia State University.
Ronald S. Crichlow, Evette M. Layne
MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000