Ecology, Evolution, and Engineering for Empowered Brains (EEEeb).
Team : Watching-Place; Eva Paige Normandin, Eleanor Horton, Marysa Ruseau, Rafiq Abdus-Sabur, Josh Van Zak, Kavita Shah, Valentina Zhang | Funded by MIT Media Lab
Co-designed by student-researchers from the MIT Media Lab, the Empowered Brain Institute, as well as parents, Ecology, Evolution, and Engineering for Empowered Brains is a multi-week, sensory-friendly series of educational workshops for neurodiverse youth which hones skills in understanding, interpreting, and protecting the natural environment.Through creative, hands-on teaching exercises and field visits, participants engage with foundational ecological principles as well as new/emerging technologies used to sculpt ecological and evolutionary processes.
In our workshops, we discussed contemporary challenges related to conservation and global climate change, and highlighted engineering strategies with which to address these obstacles. Through project-based learning, students had the opportunity to develop understanding by experimentation--or play--, and workshops emphasized immersion, rather than memorization. Wholly, we sought to foster a safe and creative learning space in which students are able to develop the necessary technical literacy to become future leaders in the environmental sciences. Read more about EEEeb our write-up for MIT’s Medium, here: Hands-On Ecology: Fostering Neuroinclusivity in STEM Education.
We have developed several learning materials for these workshops which are not currently available online. Please reach out if you would like access to these resources—we are happy to share and remix them!
