Pre-Orientation Begins by Matt McGann '00
Pre-Orientation and a mini-contest!
Pre-Orientation and a mini-contest!
This week, the MIT Class of 2010 (otherwise known as MIT MMX) begins their pre-Orientation. Orientation itself begins on Sunday, but for half of the class, they are already getting to know their classmates and MIT.
Thre are more than a dozen different Freshman Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOPs), each covering a different subject. The oldest program is the Freshman Leadership Program, and the newest programs include one on Architecture and one on Literature. The FPOPs are a great opportunity to get to know a few dozen classmates well, before meeting the entire 1,000+ person freshman class.
Here are a few of the FPOP highlights:
Discover Earth
Sponsored by the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department, Discover Earth brings 20 incoming freshman to Montana, Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Students will camp out in the parks, have informal lectures with the Earth Science faculty, and see geysers, hot springs, and evidence of volcanoes.
Discover Mechanical Engineering (DME)
Over the course of five days, students, with help from Mechanical Engineering Department faculty and students, build “Soccer Bots,” culminating in an ultimate Soccer Bot battle/tournament at the Museum of Science. Between using the machine shop and working on control boxes, participants get to take a cruise of Boston Harbor and learn to sail at the MIT Sailing Pavilion.
Freshman Arts Program (FAP)
FAP serves as initiation into the MIT arts community. Each of the 60 freshman in the program and 12 upperclassman mentors explore one of six different disciplines: music, dance, creative writing, film and media/photography, theater, and visual arts. All of these disciplines are well represented at MIT. Students will also check out Boston and Cambridge’s extensive arts scene.
You can read about all of the different FPOPs on the Orientation website.
And, of course, following pre-orientation is Orientation itself! More on that soon…
…and a mini-contest!
Welcome to campus, MIT MMX! I’d like you to send me some of your pictures from your first days on campus, capturing your excitement and surprises at MIT.
Some suggested photo topics:
- Moving into your room & getting to know your roommate
- Your experiences at an FPOP
- Meeting your advisor
- The Orientation official welcome
- Boston & Cambridge
- etc.
Here are the rules:
- You should submit captions with every picture.
- Each entry should have no more than 6 pictures.
- You may enter more than once.
- Enter by sending me an email with either a link to your pictures, or attach the pictures themselves.
- Upperclassman MIT students who are around for Orientation may also enter.
- Entries will be accepted now through the first day of classes.
- The best entries will be posted on this blog.
- There is a possible bonus prize for the best picture that spells M-I-T.
I look forward to seeing your photos!
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PLUTO IS NO MORE A PLANET !!!
Pluto has lost its seven-decade status as the ninth and outermost planet of the solar system, an assembly of the world’s top astrononomical body – International Astronomical Union (IAU) – has decided.
“The eight planets are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune”
– IAU resolution, 2006
Pluto’s status had been contested for many years by astronomers who said that its tiny size and highly eccentric orbit precluded it from joining the other acknowledged planets.
The call for an official definition of the word “planet” gained ground after the discovery of a distant object beyond Pluto’s orbit called 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena. It is slightly bigger than Pluto and thus could lay claim to being a planet.
Pluto was discovered on 18 February 1930 by US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who was then 24 years old.
Named after the god of the underworld in classical mythology, it orbits the Sun at an average distance of 5,906,380,000 kilometres (3,670,050,000 miles), taking 247.9 Earth years to complete a single orbit.
– SHABIN
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Dang, makes me wish I’d gotten a pic of a certain FPOP leader sitting on John Harvard’s lap…
Dear frind,
I am a visiting scholar in the department of Linguistics and Philosophy, and interested in your activities. Can I attend your activities?:)
Best,
Susan
This year’s pre-orientation programs are definitely a couple dozen more than we had in 2006. Wish we had that!
Wait, I meant the FPOP activities for the class of 2006.
As always, Matt, great job on the blog. I hear you are visiting the Art of Problem Solving Web site for another Math Jam in September–that’s cool.
I see from your blog entries that there is NEVER a nonbusy time of the year for you. But I hope, before you start doing lots of road trips, that we’ll hear from you about homeschooled applicants, just as we heard from you last year about unusually young applicants (the “Doogie Howser” blog entry). There will probably be quite a few links set to the permalink of the blog entry on homeschooled applicants when you are able to finish it.
Best wishes for a great new school year, and much success putting together class of 2011.