MIT for America: Bringing STEM education to all
Dear members of the MIT community,
With enthusiasm, I write to let you know about an important new strategic initiative to increase access to quality STEM education across the United States, in settings from kindergarten to community college.
A natural extension of the Institute’s long record of national service, MIT for America is grounded in our deep belief in potential over pedigree, in the transformative power of learning by doing and in the open sharing of knowledge.
Science and technology have never been more central to our society. Yet across the country, access to and engagement with STEM education are extremely uneven; for instance, almost half of US high schools don’t offer calculus, and only 6 percent of US students take any computer science in high school.
Designed to increase access and opportunities for students and teachers in all 50 states, MIT for America is an umbrella that unites several existing MIT programs and aims to substantially extend their reach, while also creating opportunities for new initiatives and partnerships. Current and future efforts will focus in three areas:
Mathematical Thinking and Problem Solving
By tapping MIT alumni and students as teachers and mentors, the MIT for America Calculus Program is already enabling students in its partner schools across the country to develop the advanced math skills they need to pursue STEM pathways in the future.
Learn, Live & Work with AI
As MIT’s recent report on AI and education made clear, AI is changing everything – including the skills students need as they step out into the world. Building on programs like MIT RAISE, Day of AI, MIT PATH, and MIT App Inventor, MIT for America is connecting teachers with the skills and resources to teach students to use AI and computing responsibly and well. As one example, through MIT PATH, MIT partners with community colleges to develop career pathways in fields from health care to financial services, enabling students to build both AI capabilities and the durable human skills to thrive in the workplace.
Design, Make & Innovate
MIT was founded on a belief in the power of learning by doing. By amplifying efforts like the Regenerative Futures Challenge and the Fab Foundation’s nationwide network of 300 Fab Labs, MIT for America is creating hands-on opportunities for students to design, build, experiment and solve real-world problems. It’s also connecting teachers with the tools and curricula to bring hands-on learning to their schools.
You can learn more from this article on MIT News.
MIT for America is new – but it builds on years of concerted effort to increase MIT’s educational reach beyond our campus, and it will continue to work closely with a wide range of campus offices and programs.
Professors Eric Klopfer and Cynthia Breazeal will serve as faculty co-directors; Dr. Claudia Urrea, the longtime head of MIT’s pK–12 initiative, will serve as head of the initiative’s strategy and implementation; and Professor Pawan Sinha will chair its advisory board. Shaping the initiative’s priority areas will be Professors Justin Reich, John Ochsendorf and Arup K. Chakraborty. Professor Chakraborty's Gateway to AI recently completed a successful pilot run offering in-person summer courses in linear algebra and AI to high school students in Wyoming and New Hampshire. I’m grateful to all these colleagues for their leadership.
I look forward to watching these programs flourish, evolve and grow.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
President