Now in its third year, SEED Academy was started as an academic enrichment and career exploration program to prepare traditionally underserved high school students from select Boston and Cambridge public schools for academic and professional careers in the technical fields. During the six-hour day, the program provides students with mini-lectures on everything from vector subtraction to buoyancy. The lynchpin of the program is a “life mastery” class taught by Christopher Jones, who has a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from Morehouse College (1999) and a M.S. in nuclear engineering and technology and policy from MIT (2003). Currently an algebra teacher at Boston’s MATCH School, Christopher focuses his class on strong goal-setting abilities, achievement standards, and public presentation skills over the course of each ten-week term. In addition, outside lecturers are brought in to tell students how they moved from underprivileged backgrounds to stellar academic careers.

Each spring, the program selects about 20 ninth grade students from its eight partner schools: the Academy of Public Service, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, East Boston High School, Economics and Business Academy, Madison Park High School, Media and Technology Charter High (MATCH) School, John D. O'Bryant High School of Mathematics and Science in Boston, and TechBoston Academy. This February, SEED Academy welcomed 19 juniors and 13 sophomores, in addition to 25 new freshmen, the largest class thus far.

The students are introduced to the wonders of engineering through a series of hands-on demonstrations designed to raise questions that students try to solve working in small groups. In the process of investigating, designing, building, and collaborating with their peers, participants cultivate the fundamental math, science, and communication skills critical to success in college and the workplace.

For example, what teenager isn’t interested in cars? The ninth grade instructor, Marc Graham, and MIT student tutors have developed a lesson on the conservation of energy using a battery powered car. The students have built simple electric motors and assembled gear boxes and will be machining parts to build a simple car. Their objective is to assemble the gearboxes so that the cars can best carry varying loads.

Last year’s class used student-built catapults to throw various objects into receptacles, winning points for distance and accuracy. The students had to adjust placement, tension, and velocity to make precise tosses, thereby learning the basics of mechanical engineering in a fun, supportive atmosphere that reinforced their knowledge of algebra and one-dimensional kinematics.

Last semester, miniature cars powered by vinegar and baking soda were the highlight of the chemical engineering segment. Students had to consider various data and adjust the amounts of ingredients to power their cars along an impromptu racecourse in Killian Court.

SEED Academy gives students access to not only laboratories and instructors, but the highest-caliber engineering “professors” and technology. Eboney Smith and an MIT student co-instructor for the 10th grade, have created an aeronautical and astronautical engineering curriculum that brings students into MIT’s wind tunnel, allows them to test the flight simulator, and introduces them to Professor Wes Harris, head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The 11th grade team, led by instructor James McLurkin and another MIT student tutor, experiences this year’s course on renewable energy sources. Students will address the world's power crisis by learning about sustainable energy sources. Advanced algebra will be used to support the physics concepts of work, energy, efficiency, and power. The entire energy production/consumption cycle, from power plants to hybrid vehicles, will be explored through lectures from experts on fuel cell development and nuclear material proliferation. Students will meet with MIT's Solar and Electric Vehicle Team and build their own miniature windmills to learn about alternative sources of energy production and storage.

The class will also form a small energy company, SEED Energy Co., dividing into six subsidiary companies for the final project. Each subsidiary group will design and construct a small power plant that generates electricity by using sustainable energy. These plants will be installed in an outdoor location for an extended period of time to collect performance data. Each group will lease the space they construct on; the final results will be judged on profit/expense ratios.

Karl Reid, the executive director of School of Engineering Special Programs, in his annual address exhorts students to raise the bar for their personal achievement and commitment to the program’s goals. He also urges families to continue to support academic excellence and intellectual curiosity. But as one student notes, it’s the engineering projects that capture the imagination: “DRY ICE — the coolest thing I have ever played with and used in my life.”

SEED Academy is made possible through the generous support of its corporate, individual, and philanthropic sponsors and MIT.