Independent Activities Period

The Center for Global Change Science also promotes educational outreach among the MIT community by sponsoring climate change and environmental lectures and activities during MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January. These sessions are usually organized and presented by graduate students affiliated with the Center.

Past Center-sponsored sessions during IAP have included lectures on climate change science, a seminar on domestic climate policy, a mock climate policy negotiation, and a series of sessions in which participants designed and built an educational boardgame about climate change. In a prior year the students led an innovative walking tour of Boston that utilized landmarks as touch-stones to highlight potential risks of climate change. The "Climate Change: Boston Underwater" tour spanned issues from local to global: the "Tragedy of the Commons" was explained at a stop on Boston Common; the potential impact of climate change on the insurance industry was the theme in the Financial District; regional greenhouse gas regulation initiatives were reviewed on the steps of the State House on Beacon Hill; and ecosystems impacts and intergenerational issues were the focus of discussion in front of the Make Way For Ducklings statue.

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