Grades 7-8: Register Now for MIT SPARK, Mar. 18-19

Events

Run by MIT undergraduate and graduate students, SPARK offers students in Grades 7 and 8 a variety of short, interesting classes on the MIT campus over one weekend, March 18-19 (10AM-5PM on Saturday, 9AM-5PM on Sunday). The registration lottery is open now through 5PM on March 4, and until that deadline all course preferences will be treated equally in the lottery. After that, any remaining seats will be open first-come/first-served. Students may choose from over 70 courses and must register on their own. To fill your schedule, rank your top 3 classes and star at least 10 classes per time block. A $50 fee covers two days of classes and lunch and lots of walk-in activities. Generous financial aid is available. For more information not covered here, email spark@mit.edu. Here are STEM courses offered:

Computer Science

  • Can a computer solve it? P vs NP
  • Intro to JavaScript & Web Development
  • A brief history of computer science

Engineering

  • Build Your Own Solar Powered Car
  • How to Run an Airline
  • Crystals and Crystallography
  • CAD 101
  • Create your own board game
  • How to build a space mission

Mathematics

  • Fun with math: puzzles, games and a bit of history
  • Can you draw a house without lifting your pen? What about a computer network?
  • The Magic of Higher Powers
  • Cut & Reassemble: From a cat to a bird
  • Game Theory and Chomping Monsters
  • Pretty Patterns in Pascal’s Triangle

Science

  • Take Flight!
  • Let’s Talk about the Weather
  • Incarcerated Rights to Healthcare
  • Light: The coolest thing in the world
  • Climate Change and the Future of Human Health
  • Microbiology: Microbe Biology
  • What’s in a Nuclear Reactor?
  • Make Your Own Metamaterial
  • Minerals Lab: Earth’s Materials
  • Underwater Earthquake Science: An Intro to Performing Research on Ships as a Marine Geophysicist
  • Herbal Medicine: Not Just Essential Oils!