Designing the First Year Final Presentations

The Designing the First Year Final Presentations were held on Monday, May 14, 2018 in 26-100. The slides from each team are linked below along with videos of some of the teams explaining their final concepts. You can also check out an overview video of the class. Do you have any comments or ideas to share after reviewing the presentations? Submit them on http://bit.ly/fyeidea or by email to D1Y@mit.edu.

Ben Gray, Hailey Nichols, Kate Weishaar would like “to give freshmen more flexibility and opportunity to explore their academic interests in their first year by reducing the rigidity of the science GIRs by changing the grading system and using alternative class formats like fusion classes, sampler classes, and takeout classes.”

David Rich, Emily Zhu and Mihir Trivedi want “to give first-years an opportunity to explore academic interests by encouraging experiential learning using a structured research program directed at first-years.”

Amber VanHemel, Andrea Meister, David Ricardo, Gabriel Ginorio, Katie Shade, and Phillip Ou want “to enable students to feel informed when choosing a major and explore MIT during the first year in a way that inspires them.”

Erick Friis, Coral Bays-Muchmore, Shane Lyons, Ariela Slutsky and Daniel Gonzalez have identified how “to help students discover new passions and plan their commitments in a single application.”

Kelsey Becker and Stephanie Nuñes Dominguez are recommending “a system that enables new students to find communities that will enrich learning and create lifelong connections.”

Dextina Booker, Elysa Kohrs, Tanner Reid and Doug Shin desire “want to encourage and enable first year students to be better able to explore the institute’s offerings, especially academic offerings, and be intentional about what they decide to do and study at MIT.”

Rachael Thompson, Herng Yi Cheng, Max Evans and Cameron Ordone have identified “ways to fulfill the underlying needs of first-year students, by evaluating how every program or practice at MIT currently serves student goals and fulfills MIT's mission, and reimagining - from first principles - how those objectives could be better served.”

Hem Chaudhary, Sharlene Chiu, Greta Farrell, Stephen Filippone, James Li, Nicole Moody, Reva Ranka, Kaymie Shiozawa, Megan Thai and Olivia Yao want to “empower students to shape their relationships with advisors and to support advisors in fulfilling their responsibilities.”

Alexis Oriole, Camille Stubbe and Jeanie Pearson indicate “in a world where a good mentor can influence one’s path through life, we want MIT students to form meaningful relationships with their advisors and receive the guidance they need.”

Emma Bingham, Mike Winer, Mo Eltahir and Becca McCabe recommend making “the first year more engaging by reconsidering the purpose, format, content, and structure of the science GIRs [physics (8.01x and 8.02x), calculus (18.01x and 18.02x), chemistry (5.111x or 3.091), and biology (7.01x)].”

Dancy Fu, Miki Hansen, Anthony Hernandez and Jackie Lin hope to “Redesign first year CI classes to better teach communication skills - both oral and written - in order to prepare students to better articulate their ideas at MIT, in industry, and beyond.”