Hello ORC and ESD Grad Students!

With the blessings of the two ORC co-directors and the Director of ESD, we are announcing a student contest. We want MIT students to create more BLOSSOMS videos for high school math classes! Each winning submission will be rewarded with a prize of $1,000. There will be up to three winners. Submissions can be by individuals or by teams of two or more. We are especially interested in submissions that cover one of these topics: (a) Little's Law of Queueing (where Prof. Little has promised to make a cameo appearance!); (b) estimating orders of magnitudes of things that are not well defined (I am happy to provide an example to any of you who ask); and (3) "Systems." But we welcome submissions on any topic that is level-appropriate for a high school class.

Background: BLOSSOMS = Blended Learning Open Source Science Or Math Studies. http://blossoms.mit.edu . This is an international collaboration, creating a rich repository of Open Source video modules for high school STEM classes, worldwide (STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

BLOSSOMS Goals: (1) promote critical thinking (moving away from rote memorization); (2) excite high school students about STEM careers and subject matter; (3) show application of math and science to every day life; (4) develop cross-cultural awareness and appreciation; (5) have some fun while doing all of this.

Some of you are familiar with posted BLOSSOMS modules made by MIT students. Examples from ORC and ESD students:

ORC: Karima Nigmatulina, http://blossoms.mit.edu/videos/lessons/taking_walks_delivering_mail_introduction_graph_theory
ORC: Anna Teytelman (with Prof. Arnold Barnett), http://blossoms.mit.edu/videos/lessons/bigger_better_look_selection_bias_all_around_us
ESD: Rhonda Jordan and Dan Livengood, http://blossoms.mit.edu/videos/lessons/flaws_averages
ESD: Dan Sturtevant, http://blossoms.mit.edu/videos/lessons/building_cryptosystems

BLOSSOMS lessons follow a unique "Blended Learning" and "Teaching Duet" pedagogical model that we have derived (by trial and error!) over the past three years. Any submission must adhere to that pedagogical model. To aid in your decision, we have templates we can send to you that show you a step-by-step approach, leading from "Concept" of your BLOSSOMS module, to its "Architecture," to its "Pseudo-Script," to a "Story Board" (made with the help of a professional videographer), to actual videotaping. Attached is a Quick Guide that outlines the BLOSSOMS lesson development process.

Here is the proposed schedule of events:

  1. Wed. November 16: Expression of interest, where you send me an email indicating your intention to participate in the contest. Then I email you the templates and some related useful information. If there is a Team, then you identify members of the Team.
  2. Wed. December 7: Submission of the Concept template for your BLOSSOMS video module.
  3. Some date in IAP, exact date yet to be determined: Live contest in an MIT auditorium where you (and your team) act out the first two sessions of your video and you submit your proposed Architecture template for the entire video. Winners will be announced live at this event.

The winners must agree to move on to the development of a pseudo-script that must be approved prior to videotaping. The date of videotaping during the spring semester will be arranged to be convenient to your schedule.

Thanks for reading through this, and we hope to hear from you about your participation in this contest.

Best to all,
Dick Larson