In the fall semester of 2010, D-Lab will start offering a new class called D-Lab: Discovery geared towards incoming freshmen. We have been observing an increasing demand from the student body to engage more and earlier in D-Lab classes. However, most of the academic offerings in D-Lab are aimed at juniors, seniors and graduate students. In order to respond to this student demand, we have conceived a new interactive, hands-on class with two main goals: explore and nurture the creativity that so many students have when they come to MIT, and provide an entry point to issues of development early on, in fact, as early as their very first semester at the Institute.
D-Lab: Discovery will be offered as a Freshman Advising Seminar, and will be taught by a team of instructors who are currently teaching the different D-Lab classes, bringing together a broad range of backgrounds and problem solving styles. The class will be taught as a series of several modules, each based around a particular theme, and each teaching different aspects of creativity or problem solving and prototyping skills. At the beginning of the semester students will investigate creativity itself, and will apply their creativity in a variety of media, including drawing, language, sculpture and design. Later in the semester, students will explore the use of different materials, such as wood, metal and plastic. Finally, students will apply their creativity to specific problems within the context of international development.
As freshman, you have to submit your application to this seminar by June 11, 2010, through the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming (UAAP) and and you'll be notified by mid-August via the Online Freshman Advising Folder.