Professional learning at MIT: taking STEAM to the next level in our schools

Last month 54 Nord Anglia Education teachers travelled from 50 of our schools around the world for an action-packed week of professional development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focused on curiosity, exploration, and innovation.

The motto of the MIT is ‘mens et manus’, which translate from Latin as ‘mind and hand’. The institute is famous for both the quality of its research, claiming 101 Nobel Prize laureates, and its hands-on, project based, interdisciplinary approach. The trip let teachers experience all these aspects first-hand.

Five days of professional learning

Practical workshops across the week also created hands-on opportunities for learning as Nord Anglia teachers ran exoplanet experiments, photographed bacteria, explored the likelihood of alien life beyond our universe, and made engineering models out of origami.

Teachers’ minds were expanded further by behind-the-scenes tours of research labs where they connected with researchers. They visited glass labs, fusion centres, and machine shops, learning about the work being done on cutting-edge projects like the fluorescent worms advancing our understanding of neuroscience at the Flavell Lab along with engineers making underwater robots at MIT Sea Grant. One highlight was the work of the Yamashita Lab where researchers are using fruit flies to study stem cell development.

In the ‘Lunch with a Luminary’ talks connected our teachers with expert MIT researchers on topics such as:

• AI insights into design and manufacturing from Faez Ahmed, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
• Climate change models from oceanographer Caroline Ummenhofer.
• Innovative blends of art and robotics with NASA satellite engineer Yun Choi.
• And the real-life space travel experiences from astronaut Jeff Hoffman, who shared how his team are creating oxygen on Mars.

Mark O Brien, MIT Lead Europe, La Cote International School Aubonne, said: “The MIT PD trip was an incredible experience where like-minded teachers from our NAE family around the world came together to develop a better understanding of the philosophy of MIT and learn how to support and embed our world-class collaboration in our schools. By the end of the week, everyone left full of knowledge, enthusiasm, and a determination to support the development of STEAM within our regions, communities and individual schools.”

Nicole Sargeant, MIT Lead for Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Regents School Pattaya, said: “The MIT STEAM PD was an inspirational and transformative experience. There was a perfect balance between cutting-edge presentations and tours that blew my mind and really useful workshops that gave me new practical skills to bring back to my students. Having an opportunity to collaborate on a group project during the PD allowed me to step into my students’ shoes, giving me a deeper understanding of the demands placed on them, and how to better support them when they are tacking the MIT STEAM challenges in the future.”

Putting it into action across our schools

The value of the deep professional learning week at MIT is that teachers  take this expertise and interdisciplinary approach into their own school curriculum. The MIT materials include:

• MIT Challenges: Real-world problems set by MIT researchers to develop students’ creativity and curiosity.
• MIT abstracts: Talks with early career researchers that provide insight into their research and their personal journey to MIT.
• Ask MIT: An opportunity for students to pose their own questions to current MIT faculty.
• MIT Home labs: ways you can engage with MIT science projects at home.

If you’d like to learn more about the MIT collaboration, all MIT challenges, abstracts, and Home Labs can be accessed on Global Campus.

To ask MIT a question directly or see videos of past responses, visit the NAE MIT collaboration website