STEM Concept Videos

In this video, Legos® are used to create possible molecular level models of a buffer. This is done to better understand how a buffer works and the components a buffer must contain in order to be effective.

This video uses a series of examples and student-active segments to investigate the concepts of torque and equilibrium.

This video determines the units of the differential quantity dx in terms of the units of x, and explores how integration and differentiation affect units.

This video motivates the statistical mechanics approach through material structure and behavior. Entropy is introduced as a natural variable whose derivative with respect to energy is zero when the number of microstates is maximized.

This video leads students through describing the motion of all points on a wobbly disk as a function of time. Properties of time independent rotation matrices are explored.

This video introduces the concept of the vector, explores vector properties using physical intuition based on displacements, and discusses how to recognize when a physical quantity can be represented by a vector.

This video briefly reviews the simplifications and assumptions of the VSEPR model.

This video introduces students to stability of equilibria. A temperature example is explored using an energy argument, and then the typical linear stability analysis framework is introduced. This framework is applied in detail to analyze a pendulum.

This video takes a look at a smoke probe visualization of airflow over a model of an F16 aircraft. The visualization is created in the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel. Prof. Dave Darmofal discusses how these visualizations are used in engineering.

This video describes the motion of two objects observed from two frames of reference: a rotating turntable, and the relatively stationary ground frame. The centripetal and Coriolis accelerations that arise in rotating frames of reference are explored.

In this video, students see how the components in the regenerative receiver circuit work together to dampen unwanted frequencies, while selectively amplifying and demodulating a desired AM signal.

This video will show students how to calculate the moments of a distribution and how moments can help us understand something about a distribution.

This video uses robotics as a context for describing rigid body motion and equations of constraint. Illustrative video clips are drawn from the robotics competition in MIT’s 2.007 "Design and Manufacturing" course.

This video presents students with a problem solving process that they might find useful in solving ill defined problems. Students see how this problem solving process was used by MIT graduate students to complete a class project.

This video encourages students to access their knowledge of kinetic theory and apply it to the real world problem of light bulb blackening.

In this video, students learn about layer-by-layer assembly of polyelectrolyte multilayer films. They see how the chemical structure of the macromolecules used in the films affects the function and properties of the film.

Prof. Ben Brubaker defines and explores the properties of the linear approximation of a function at a point. The linear approximation is then applied to solve a simple differential equation encountered in chemical kinetics.

This video explains the concept of "latent heat" and how it can dramatically reduce heating and cooling costs in homes and skyscrapers alike.

This video describes many facets of light, introducing it as a context in which to discuss scientific modeling.

In this video, Lego® molecules are used to visualize the ideas that reactions are reversible, reaction rates change with time, and at equilibrium, the rate of the forward reaction equals the rate of the reverse reaction.

This video looks at the different models of gravity and describes scenarios where each model is applicable.

This video includes a brief refresher on the method for drawing free body diagrams, along with examples of free body diagrams, common errors, an opportunity to practice, and connections between free body diagrams and the physical situations they describe.

This video examines Gauss’ Law and area integrals in detail, focusing on extracting as many variables as possible from the integral through careful choice of a Gaussian surface.

This video leads students through an understanding of how the gradient is used in Fick's first law to describe a relationship between the flux of particles and the concentration of particles.

This video leads students through using linear algebra to model a gear train.

In this video, students will learn how to apply Chi square hypothesis testing to experimental data obtained from genetic experiments.

This video begins with a review of electric field and electric potential, focusing on their similarities and differences and the way they are most commonly represented.

This video begins with observations of spontaneous processes from daily life and then connects the idea of spontaneity to entropy.

This video discusses the importance and utility of enzyme kinetics for drug development and derives the Michaelis-Menten equation for a simple enzyme-substrate system.

In this video, four scenarios are presented wherein the heat transfer between a pan and its handle, and between the handle and the room are constrained in a variety of ways, and the resultant temperature profiles are discussed.

This video discusses negative and positive feedback loops, how they tie into the body’s mechanism of internal regulation, and what happens when these mechanisms fail.

This video leads students through the problem solving method of dimensional analysis. In one example, students use dimensional analysis to determine the diameter of a parachute needed to slow a rover to 90m/s in order to safely land on Mars.

This video provides an introduction to conditional probability and its calculations, as well as how it can be used to interpret medical diagnoses.

This video reviews the law of conservation of mass and basic stoichiometry. Students use the concepts of mass conservation and control volumes to find unknown information in examples of a growing plant (photosynthesis) and a rusting car (iron oxidation).

This video combines the concepts of modeling, conservation of mass, and differential equations to estimate the concentration of estrogen in Massachusetts Bay.

This video uses a simple model to help students understand the fundamental difference between a regular and a random walk. The concept of a random walk is connected to diffusion and is used to explain the structure of Fick's law.

This video describes the key elements of strategic communication. Students watch and evaluate three segments of an MIT student presentation that exemplifies these key elements.

This video explains how programming problems can be broken into simpler yet similar problems, and then be solved recursively or iteratively. Students are presented with classic string manipulation problems and the Towers of Hanoi problem.

In this video, students are introduced to the concept of chiral molecules and the relationship between molecular structure and function.

This video leads students through an approximation technique to compute the fuel efficiency of a car moving at highway speeds, by using dimensional analysis and a simple experiment to identify the exponents in a formula for the drag force on a car.