Laura N. '09 | September 06, 2005
"Fun with Legos"
So all freshmen are assigned to a faculty advisor who helps them make decisions about choosing classes. Each faculty advisor comes with an associate advisor, which is an upperclassman who acts as a something of a mentor to all the innocnet and clueless froshies. This convenient relationship sometimes takes place in the form of an advising seminar, where 7 or 8 innocent and clueless froshies bond together over an interesting but random seminar topic.
My advising seminar is called "Designing Kids Technologies," and it takes places in E15-001, aka The Lego Learning Laboratory.
E15-001 is officially the single coolest room I've ever seen. It's so cool, that I've decided to devote an entire entry to it.
First things first. This is what you seen as soon as you walk into the Media Lab, building E15:
Maybe I'm just weird, but I think that wall looks really cool.
As you descend to E15-001:
(if you haven't figured out the number system yet, E15 signifies the building, the first digit indicates the floor (the basement, in this case), and the last two digits give the room number)
Ok I'm done making you look at walls. We'll graduate from walls to doors. Here is the first glimpse you get of the Lego Learning Lab:
And now the fun begins...
If you walk through the door and look to your right, you see
a quite impressive Lego collection. (Oh, and that red thing that's cut off to the left of the photo- that's a phone booth. For serious.)
If you walk through the door and look to your left, you see....
Yes. Yes, that is in fact what you think it is. A monkey made entirely out of Legos.
You know, you can get a UROP here? I mean c'mon, who wouldn't want to work here? There's a disco ball made out of CDs and everything!
And hey, even the stairs are cool:
That concludes our completely superficial tour of the Lego Learning Lab (the people who brought you Lego Mindstorms) in the Media Center (the people who brought you the Jerk-o-Meter).
Check back later for some (hopefully cool) information about what actually happens in there.
I've found that it's sometimes easy to forget that this place is actually a school....
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The author has filed this entry in the "Advising & Support" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
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Hey, my name is Kate, I'm currently a junior (aspiring to be valedictorian) at Council Rock High School South, and it's my dream to go to MIT. So you can be sure I'll be reading your blog as much as I can fit between calculus and webcomics. Really interesting so far, now I only want to go there more. Keep it up!
Posted by: Kate on September 6, 2005 05:42 PM
I can only dream of the tinkling noise that thousands of Legos makes.
Posted by: Venkatesh on September 6, 2005 09:30 PM
There are some really nifty people who work in the Media Lab, including my GRT and three of the four Senior Haus GRTs. Unfortunately, in my experience they're usually looking for code monkeys, or occasionally EE or MechE people, when they're looking for UROPs. Unless you're in the MAS frosh program.
Posted by: Jessie on September 7, 2005 10:30 AM
I am a PhD student working in the LEGO lab, and am currently looking for a EE urop, so here is your chance:
Title: Circuit design for an electronic toolkit for interactive toys.
We are working on a new electronics toolkit that will enable novices to build their own interactive toys. We are looking for a creative and enthusiastic UROP (Junior or Senior) with experience in circuit design, such as 6.002, and similar lab work.
If you are interested, please send an email to Oren Zuckerman (orenz@media.mit.edu) with an overview of your electronics experience and a short description of why you are interested in working on this project.
best,
Oren
Posted by: Oren on September 7, 2005 10:37 PM
Hey, Ms. Wiz! This is sooooooooooo cule!!! Have a great year, looks like you're starting off on the right fingers. And remember, call your cousins if you have trouble with your partying curriculum - they aced theirs.
Love ya,
Aunt Mar
Posted by: AnteM on September 8, 2005 01:17 PM
Hello! I'm a senior living in Quito-Ecuador, and planning to apply to MIT. I've been reading your blog entries, I find them really, really helpful. Campus atmosphere is what worries me the most about applying to college without being able to visit and get a feel for myself.
I liked this particular entry because it reminded me of my childhood. I played with Legos all the time. The Lego Lab and Media Lab look awesome.
I was wondering if you could tell me what other projects are being developed at the Media Lab because I'm particularly interested in it!
Posted by: Emi on September 20, 2005 10:12 PM
Hello! I'm a senior from Guatemala City, and I’Äôm planning to apply to MIT. (If you want to know more about Guatemala, especially Mayan culture, take a look at the new survivor show.)
Mit has been my dream since I was a child so I hope that one day I can be part of the extraordinary world of MIT.
MIT is great but if you included legos that’Äôs incredible!!!! I love mindstoms sets because it helped me to realize my destiny, robotics!
If I get the chance to be a MIT student I will definitely help as much as I can to the Lego program.
Posted by: Cesar on October 7, 2005 12:01 AM
Is the Lego Lab open to the general public? Are there other things to do on campus that are open to kids? Thanks.
Posted by: Mal on March 7, 2006 02:54 PM
