Richard C. Larson, Principal Investigator, MIT BLOSSOMS
On Saturday April 23, MIT held a campus-wide Open House—called “Under the Dome”—probably the largest open house in the history of the Institute. This was part of MIT’s 100-year celebration of moving across the Chares River from its original location in Boston to its current location in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Sources estimate that 40,000 visitors toured MIT that day!
BLOSSOMS participated actively, operating an inviting booth in MIT’s duPont Gymnasium. A BLOSSOMS Team-of-Five staffed the booth: PhD students Abby Horn and Anne Collin, Francis Marrone (who organized the event!), Elizabeth Murray and Dick Larson. Abby is a BLOSSOMS video star! (“Tragedy of the Commons”) Anne has promised to become a future BLOSSOMS star!
Hundreds of people came by the booth, mostly parents with their children, ranging in age from about 4 to 18, many wanting to become MIT students (after they graduate from high school, of course!).Others who stopped by included high school teachers and MIT students.Our Team-of-Five answered many questions, showed them representative BLOSSOMS lessons, and—most popular—played the Monte Hall 3-door game every 30 minutes! The young people loved it. And there was a real prize for winners: ten dollars in “tech cash,” which can be spent as $10 anywhere on the MIT campus. We had four winners on Saturday, the last one shown with her Mom in the accompanying photo. All had a great time, and BLOSSOMS earned many new friends.