Earth. Terra. The blue planet. Many names, but one home.

In John's December Newsletter

Photo: noor Younis on Unsplash

It is important to me because OCW provides me quality education without any conditions. For a student like me who wants to be a physicist in the future, it's a gift." -Prince, university student, India

Since January, over 11 million learners have come to OpenCourseWare to support their educational journeys.

Now with only a few days left in the year, OCW needs your support. If you’re able, please consider giving to OCW before the year is over to help us continue to share open resources from MIT with the world.

Support the gift that supports so many learners worldwide. Thank you!

Chalk Radio: Searching for the Oldest Stars (Prof. Anna Frebel)

An image of a person looking up at the night sky with overlay text reading "It's a very fundamental question for humanity to ask: Where do we come from? -Prof. Anna Frebel / Chalk Radio / Season 2 Episode 2 / Searching for the Oldest Stars"

In this episode, Professor Anna Frebel shares how and why she searches for the cosmic origin of the chemical elements.

For millions of years after the Big Bang, nearly all the matter in the universe was in the form of hydrogen and helium; other elements like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen only formed later, in nuclear reactions inside stars. To learn what the universe looked like back then, MIT astrophysicist Anna Frebel studies the oldest stars we can find—13 billion years old, to be precise—scanning them for traces of elements that will give a clue to their history.

As Professor Frebel explains to Sarah Hansen in this episode, curiosity about the origins of the universe we live in is a profoundly human trait, just like curiosity about one’s own family history.

> Read the complete article

Recently on the "Community" tab of our YouTube page, every Friday we've been highlighting an OCW video. Here are a few favorites.

“We need to talk about climate change in a way that’s relevant to the intended audience,” says instructor Brandon Leshchinskiy. Learn how to engage students, educators, coworkers, friends and even our own families around this urgent global challenge here.

In this new course, Professor Jeffrey Grossman makes solid state chemistry relevant with hands-on learning and real-world applications. Here's a sneak peak.

A person with black hair tied in a bun is seen kneeling in front of a green field wearing a pink floral dress.

Some parts of western Nepal are already coping with higher temperatures and different rainfall patterns. (Image by Neil Palmer, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) on flickr. License CC BY-NC-SA.)

1.74 Land, Water, Food, and Climate

This reading seminar examines land, water, food, and climate in a changing world, with an emphasis on key scientific questions about the connections between natural resources and food production. Students read and discuss papers on a range of topics, including water and land resources, climate change, demography, agroecology, biotechnology, trade, and food security. The readings are supplemented by short lectures that provide context and summarize main points.

The seminar provides a broad perspective on one of the defining global issues of this century. Students consider scientific controversies as well as areas of general agreement and examine practical solutions for addressing critical problems.

A four-screen comic by xkcd titled "Scenario 4."

It's important to consider a variety of possible scenarios when looking at data to potentially predict the future. (Courtesy of Randall Munroe. License: CC-BY-NC.)

18.S190 Introduction to Computational Thinking with Julia, with Applications to Modeling the COVID-19 Pandemic

This half-semester course introduces computational thinking through applications of data science, artificial intelligence, and mathematical models using the Julia programming language. This Spring 2020 version is a fast-tracked curriculum adaptation to focus on applications to COVID-19 responses.

See the MIT News article Computational Thinking Class Enables Students to Engage in Covid-19 Response.

A graphic of a question mark with the following words inside: artificial NLP, interdisciplinary, fairness in machine learning (highlighted with enlarged text), focus, development, case, pedagogical, discovering, partnerships, meta-analyses, collaborating, AI, international, applications, intelligence, educational, appropriate, gender bias, algorithms, and case study.

This resource explores how and why to apply ethics in machine learning. (Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.)

RES.EC-001 Exploring Fairness in Machine Learning for International Development

In an effort to build the capacity of the students and faculty on the topics of bias and fairness in machine learning (ML) and appropriate use of ML, the MIT CITE team developed capacity-building activities and material.

This material covers content through four modules that can be integrated into existing courses over a one- to two-week period.

Brave New Planet: A Learner’s Guide

Brave New Planet is a podcast hosted by Prof. Eric Lander. (Image courtesy the Broad Institute.)

Free open educational resources from MIT offer useful background on the topics covered in a popular new podcast.

Utopia or dystopia? It’s up to us.

In the 21st century, powerful technologies have been appearing at a breathtaking pace—related to the internet, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and more. They have amazing potential upsides, but we can’t ignore the serious risks that come with them.

Brave New Planet is a podcast that delves deep into the most exciting and challenging scientific frontiers, helping us understand them and grapple with their implications. Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is a geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician who was a leader of the Human Genome Project and for eight years served as a science advisor to the White House for President Obama. He’s also the host of Brave New Planet, and he’s talked to leading researchers, journalists, doctors, policy makers, activists, and legal experts to illuminate how this generation’s choices will shape the future as never before.

Brave New Planet is a partnership between the Broad Institute, Pushkin Industries, and the Boston Globe.

> Check out our guide

Views from OCW Supporters

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OCW isn't merely an educational or informative center for different subject areas. It's a lifesaver. OCW has helped me gain access to my passion, mechanical engineering, for free.

Thank you, OCW!

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For free resources for high school teachers and students, check out: