Students learn about life-cycle assessment and how engineers use this technique to determine the environmental impact of everyday products and processes. As they examine what’s involved in making and consuming cupcakes, a snack enjoyed by millions of people every year, students learn about the production, use and disposal phases of an object’s life cycle. With the class organized into six teams, students calculate data for each phase of a cupcake’s life cycle—wet ingredients, dry ingredients, baking materials, oven baking, frosting, liner disposal—and calculate energy usage and greenhouse gases emitted from making one cupcake. They use ratios and fractions, and compare options for some of the life-cycle stages, such as different paper wrapper endings (disposal to landfills or composting) in order to make a life-cycle plan with a lower environmental impact. This activity opens students’ eyes to see the energy use in the cradle-to-grave lives of everyday products. Pre/post-quizzes, worksheets, activity cards, Excel® workbook and visual aids are provided.

This introductory undergraduate course covers the fundamentals of microeconomics. Topics include supply and demand, market equilibrium, consumer theory, production and the behavior of firms, monopoly, oligopoly, welfare economics, public goods, and externalities. 
Chalk Radio Podcast
Prof. Jonathan Gruber was featured in an episode of OpenCourseWare's podcast, Chalk Radio. In the episode "Thinking Like an Economist," Prof. Gruber talks about how he engages students in 14.01 with accessible real world examples. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts.
MITx Online Version
This course is part of the Micromaster’s Program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy through MITx Online. The course is entirely free to audit, though learners have the option to pay a fee, which is based on the learner's ability to pay, to take the proctored exam, and earn a course certificate. To access the course, create an MITx Online account and enroll in the course 14.100x Microeconomics.

Production of Educational Videos is an introduction to technical communication that is situated in the production of educational videos; the assignments are all focused on the production of videos that teach some aspect of MIT's first-year core curriculum. The objective of these assignments is improvement in both communication ability and communication habits; these improvements are effected by providing participants with instruction, practice, feedback, and the opportunity for reflection. In addition to improvements in communication skills, improvement is expected in students' attitude towards writing, oral presentations, and collaboration; as the semester progresses, students should feel confident of their ability to write, present, and collaborate.

Students develop the production possibilities frontier model while discussing the value of models in general in explaining complex ideas. They see what movement along the production possibilities curve entails on both the constant-cost curve and a bowed curve indicating increasing costs. They discuss ways a society can consume beyond the limits of its production possibilities through specialization and trade, as well as through an increase in resources, capital investment, and technological advance.

          In economics, a production function relates physical output of a production process to physical inputs or factors of production. Firms use the production function to determine how much output they should produce given the price of a good, and what combination of inputs they should use to produce given the price of capital and labor. The production function also gives information about increasing or decreasing returns to scale and the marginal products of labor and capital.

Are many products made in the United States anymore? As it turns out, yes. In fact, U.S. manufacturing output is near its highest level ever—and with fewer workers. How is that possible? Productivity growth. The March 2017 issue of Page One Economics describes what affects productivity, why economists are concerned about its recent slowdown, and what can be done about it.

This course examines alternative conceptions and theoretical underpinnings of sustainable development. It focuses on the sustainability problems of industrial countries, and of developing states and economies in transition. It also explores the sociology of knowledge regarding sustainability, the economic and technological dimensions, and institutional imperatives, along with implications for political constitution of economic performance.
17.181 fulfills the undergraduate public policy requirement in the Political Science major and minor. Graduate students are expected to explore the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.

This class looks at the special structural and practical needs of theatrical scenery and effects and how they can be constructed. We map the technical design process from initial meetings to realization on stage. The class emphasizes safety, budgeting, and problem solving. Ten 1-3 page Tech notes are required as well as a final project. Work includes actual production assignments as well as paper design projects.

This course considers the historical dimensions of rural production from subsistence to industrialization, both in America and in an international context, with an emphasis on the role of science and technology. Topics include changing notions of progress; emergence of genetics and its complex applications to food production; mechanization of both farm practices and the food industry; role of migrant labor; management theory and its impact on farm practice; role of federal governments and NGOs in production systems; women in food production systems; and the green revolution.

Directed practice in acting, directing, or design on a sustained theater piece, either one-act or full length, from pre-rehearsal preparation to workshop production.

Directed practice in acting, production, or design on a sustained theater piece, either one-act or full length, from pre-rehearsal preparation to workshop production. Consult Theater Arts Office. Includes directed practice in stagecraft. Dramashop rehearses a production of Eric Bogosian's play "subUrbia" for presentation the first two weekends in February. Visiting artist, David R. Gammons, directs. Approximately 10 roles filled by auditions. Students can receive up to six credits for acting or technical positions. Schedule of rehearsals to be arranged, but actors should be available during the afternoon. Students must be available for performances in early February. This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

Students observe the teacher produce a paper taco and then produce their own paper tacos. Students learn about the productive resources and intermediate goods used to make final goods and services. They listen to the book Tortilla Factory and identify the productive resources and intermediate goods used to produce corn tortillas. Students classify the resources used to produce their paper tacos.

Over 200 years ago, Adam Smith attempted to explain why some nations are wealthier than others. Today, the gap between rich and poor countries is even larger. The September 2017 issue of Page One Economics describes how total factor productivity contributes to economic growth and how growth leads to a rising standard of living.

Robots are in the headlines, and many of us are wondering if they’ll also be taking over our jobs. Is the “Robot Apocalypse” upon us, or is this part of a larger trend that’s been occurring for much of human history? Find out by reading the January 2018 issue of Page One Economics.

App-driven jobs allow workers to decide when, where, and how much to work—one “gig” at a time. Learn more about this new employment trend in the January 2019 issue of Page One Economics.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Economic globalization and inequality are spreading fast sparking interest in global value chains among both academics and policy makers For decades, the Heckscher-Ohlin model was the only method for understanding these phenomena Conflicting empirical evidence has led to a surge of theoretical models describing international trade scenarios This disjointed knowledge has made navigating the economic literature a difficult task Now, a new visual tool could help even non-specialists piece all of the evidence together in one place Using simple supply and demand diagrams, this tool offers unprecedented explanatory power Making it quick and easy for professionals and students alike to spot where popular models overlap or vary While it currently covers only neoclassical trade models... This figure is a powerful tool that could be used by virtually anyone to understand the effects of global value chains on inequality Franssen, L. (2019)..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.