Ecology, Evolution, and Engineering for Empowered Brains

Sponsored and run by members of the MIT Media Lab and the Empowered Brain Institute, Ecology, Evolution, and Engineering for Empowered Brains is an eight-week, sensory-friendly series of related educational workshops for neuro-divergent individuals (ages 8 - 14) which aims to hone skills in understanding, interpreting, and protecting the natural environment. Through creative, hands-on teaching exercises and field visits, participants become comfortable with basic ecological principles, as well as emerging technologies used to sculpt ecological and evolutionary processes. We discuss contemporary issues related to conservation and highlight engineering strategies with which to address these obstacles. Through project-based learning, students will have the opportunity to develop understanding by experimentation—or play—and workshops will emphasize immersion, rather than memorization. Wholly, we seek to foster a safe and creative learning space in which students are able to develop the necessary technical literacy to become future leaders in the myriad realms of environmental science.

The course will be run for the first time in the fall of 2017 (Sundays 10 am - 12 pm, October 1st through November 19th), held at the MIT Media Lab. Participation is free of charge. You may register using this link (while it is possible to register for individual sessions, we encourage participation only if students can attend every session, as the lessons build on one another).