Sampling the ESP Catalogs

A couple hundred MIT students teach ESP classes each year, and they’re creating quite a precedent for anyone who wants ideas for their own class. HSSP classes cover all aspects of math and science, liberal arts and hobbies; and Splash classes span more categories than we can think of.

Here are a sampling of classes from Splash! 2005:

• How to Build a Thermonuclear Bomb Using Things Found Around the House
• The Reeb Foliation of the 3-sphere
• Linux Kernel Hacking
• Chocolate Truffles Laboratory
• Senegalese Sabar Drumming

…And Splash on Wheels 2006:

• Esoteric Programming Languages
• How to Save the World in Your Spare Time
• Balloon Animal Workshop
• French for Dire Situations
• Be a Mathemagician!

HSSP classes are similarly varied, but not quite as wild; remember, those are taught for 10 weeks! Here are some examples from previous years:

• Audio and Speaker-Building
• Introduction to Tissue Engineering
• Common Sense Economics
• Modern Analytical Chemistry

Delve and SATPrep are a little different! The SATPrep program includes one class which covers SAT I Math, Verbal, and Writing. Delve 2004 was a pilot program with one subject: AP Calculus AB. Here are the subjects from Delve 2005:

• Chemistry
• Calculus AB
• Physics
• Art History
• Microeconomics
• Biology
• U.S. Government and Politics