NAE STEAM week @ MIT for Year 6 Students

We are delighted to announce that as part of Nord Anglia’s partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 104 students from 26 schools will once again have the opportunity to travel to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, to participate in the annual STEAM week @ MIT.

As I am sure you are aware, MIT regularly leads international league tables and is widely regarded as the top university in the world for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts & Maths (STEAM). We are therefore thoroughly excited to be able to offer BISS Puxi students the opportunity to participate in the week-long STEAM programme designed by MIT specifically for Nord Anglia Education, which will be packed full of unique learning opportunities to develop students’ skills and knowledge.

Dates:

Students will arrive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on Sunday 29th March 2020 and depart on Saturday 4th April 2020 after a full week of workshops and activities hosted by MIT.

Activities:

Students will have the opportunity to collaborate with their Nord Anglia peers from all over the world and participate in exciting workshops and activities delivered by leading MIT academics & students, as well as touring the campuses of two of the best universities in the world (MIT and Harvard University). The activities have been co-created by NAE and MIT to increase students’ understanding of STEAM, while developing their interdisciplinary learning and practical problem-solving skills.

Examples of some of the activities planned for the week are provided in the annex to this letter, although there will also be extra activities revealed when further information is released closer to the trip.

Cost:

The total cost of the trip, including flights, is 20,000 RMB. This payment will need to be made in full by Monday, 20th of January, 2020.

All meals, accommodation and transport costs incurred during the trip are included within this price. The hotel hosting our students and staff is the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, which is situated next to the iconic River Charles. Students will share a room with one other student from the same school and of the same gender. The schoolchaperone will also have a room on the same floor. The hotel is a short walk from MIT – it is important to note that students will mostly walk between venues over the course of the trip, rather than be transported by cars/buses.

Fully comprehensive travel insurance is also covered within the cost – more details of this will be available once students have been accepted onto the trip. You will not need to purchase additional security or medical insurance.

Registering interest:

Please contact Mr Robert Nolan (6N Class Teacher) by Friday, January 10th to register your child’s interest in participating in the trip and to request the application details.

What’s to come:

Once the deadline for registering interest has passed, Mr Nolan will provide all interested students with details of how to apply and the selection process. Due to the anticipated huge popularity of the trip and limited total numbers of students able to participate, each school can select a maximum of 4 students.

If your child is successful in his/her application to participate in the trip, more details will be provided such as a daily schedule, an introduction to the facilitators, packing lists and lots more.

Contact details:

If you would like to discuss this trip further, please contact Mr Robert Nolan via e-mail at Robert.Nolan@bisspuxi.com .

We are excited to host this trip and look forward to hearing from all of the students who are keen to join us for what will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

NAE STEAM week @ MIT activities

Interactive MIT tour:

The programme will kick-off with a tour of MIT to familiarise our students with the campus and help them to understand its famous culture and ethos – as well as tackle various MIT-themed problems along the way.

STEAM workshops:

Throughout the week there will be a series of workshops designed by MIT which will range from students developing coding and app-building skills to getting their hands dirty with plasma, learning about synthetic biology, testing out design & engineering skills and much more.

Real-life questing at Boda Borg:

To help students get to know each other, they will be transported into a real-world gaming environment to tackle a variety of mental and physical tests in teams. No video games, no virtual reality… just students working together to succeed in the exciting world of questing!

Theatrical performance:

Students will have the chance to watch a captivating live performance focused on developments and important figures in STEAM, followed by an interactive Q & A session with the actors in character to help understand breakthroughs from the past and possibly speculate on what the future might hold.

Secret Build Challenge:

One day in the week is also reserved for an exciting top-secret build challenge. It is led by the professor of possibly the most famous course within the MIT community and students will be split into teams to design and build something from scratch… but we’re not allowed to reveal any more than that! Q&A with MIT students:

There will be several formal and informal opportunities for our students to meet and engage in Q&A sessions with current MIT students to understand their work, how they arrived at MIT, as well as what it is really like to be a university student there.

Harvard University Tour:

To finish off the week, our students will have a tour of Harvard University to learn about its history and what being a student there is really like. It may be the first trip of many for any of our students inspired to apply for a university place there.