ESP Biography



JOANNA SANDS, ESP Teacher




Major: 6-2

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2019

Picture of Joanna Sands

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Not Available.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

Z12749: Gerrymandering: Theory and Practice in Splash 2018 (Nov. 17 - 18, 2018)
Gerrymandering: America's favorite political power play since 1812. We'll learn how and why parties draw congressional districts with nicknames like "The Pinwheel of Death", "The Mistake by the Lake", and "The 8 Mile Mess", and why it's hard to outlaw such madness. Then you'll get to try your hand at gerrymandering, to see if you can do better than your classmates at getting more seats for your party.


C12205: Regular Expression Crosswords in Spark 2018 (Mar. 17 - 18, 2018)
Regular Expressions are "a sequence of characters that define a search pattern" that are used often in computer science for parsing and searching. Come learn the basics of regex and one of its least useful use-cases (CROSSWORDS)!


W11443: LN2 Ice Cream in Spark 2017 (Mar. 11 - 12, 2017)
LN2 is cool. So is ice cream.


W11444: Beginner Ukelele in Spark 2017 (Mar. 11 - 12, 2017)
Have a bit of extra time between classes and want to learn a cool skill in minutes? Come learn to play the ukulele! Or if you already know how to play the ukulele, come impress us with your amazing musical ability. Whether you're a ukulele virtuoso or have never picked one up before, come by, pick one up, and play with us!


W11455: Mahjong in Spark 2017 (Mar. 11 - 12, 2017)
This isn't some solo matching game you've seen on PC but a PvP showdown of skill and luck! Come see what it's about and play with tiles.


C11256: Search Algorithms:How to get to your destination in HSSP Spring 2017 (Feb. 18, 2017)
Search algorithms allowed us to find a path from one place to another. In this class we will introduce different graph search algorithms and how they are used to find the best path.


S10784: Bizarre Biology Facts in Splash 2016 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2016)
Dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate. Polar bears have black skin. Sloths can achieve speeds of up to 20mph in the right conditions. Chameleons change color to show emotions. Llamas are closely related to camels. There are monkeys native to South America. Some of these facts are false; can you tell which ones? In this class I'll tell you about lots of crazy new findings in biology, and I'll let you decide which ones are true.


W10785: Card Games in Splash 2016 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2016)
Come learn how to play cards at walk-ins!


X10554: Slightly Advanced Card Games in HSSP Summer 2016 (Jul. 10, 2016)
Do you want to be the next NAPOLEON of card games? In this class, you'll learn enough card games to become the PRESIDENT of your own club. You'll TRACTOR in wins - like shooting FISH in a barrel. So do you know what words should be coming out of your MAOth? "OH HELL, guess I'll sign up."


X10364: Mao! in Spark 2016 (Mar. 12 - 13, 2016)
Learn how to play Mao! (It's a card game.) When we say you have to learn how to play the game, we really mean you have to learn it. We won't be giving you any of the rules! For the full experience of Mao, please don't go and search up the rules before coming to class. That just spoils the fun. Don't worry though; at the end you'll take back a sheet containing the basic rules, so even if you haven't figured out the rules by then, you'll know how to play the game.


L10368: Bizarre Biology Facts in Spark 2016 (Mar. 12 - 13, 2016)
Dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate. Polar bears have black skin. Sloths can achieve speeds of up to 20mph in the right conditions. Chameleons change color to show emotions. Llamas are closely related to camels. There are monkeys native to South America. Some of these facts are false; can you tell which ones? In this class I'll tell you about lots of crazy new findings in biology, and I'll let you decide which ones are true.


W10382: Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream in Spark 2016 (Mar. 12 - 13, 2016)
We'll make you some really cool ice cream.


S9875: Bizarre biology facts in Splash 2015 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2015)
Dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate. Polar bears have black skin. Sloths can achieve speeds of up to 20mph in the right conditions. Chameleons change color to show emotions. Llamas are closely related to camels. There are monkeys native to South America. Some of these facts are false; can you tell which ones? In this class I'll tell you about lots of crazy new findings in biology, and I'll let you decide which ones are true.


W10214: Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream in Splash 2015 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2015)
We'll make you some really cool ice cream.