Field Trip to MIT: Real World Learning

The Lynnfield High School student Help Desk attended a field trip to MIT on Tuesday May 3, 2016.  Janice Alpert, the Library Media Specialist and Kathleen Dario, IT coordinator  brought students to MIT. Thanks to Robert Fadel who works at MIT, students were able to visit the MIT  IS&T Computing Help Desk / Service Desk. Students were given a tour and met the director of the help desk and were able to see first hand what specific issues were handled by the MIT help desk. LHS students also visited the Adaptive Technology for Information and Computing (ATIC) lab.  Here students learned about a variety of assistive technologies available to MIT students such as  an electronic reader for visually impaired students, vertical mice and an assortment of assistive keyboards. The last and the most exciting part for the students was visiting the IMES MakerLab, just one of many of the Makerspaces at MIT.  LHS students were able to create manual (without electricity) nebulizers using tubing and bike pumps and also experimented with the laser cutter. For the LHS students, this was a truly authentic hands-on-learning experience.