Frameworks and Models for Technology and Policy students explore perspectives in the policy process -- agenda setting, problem definition, framing the terms of debate, formulation and analysis of options, implementation and evaluation of policy outcomes using frameworks including economics and markets, law, and business and management. Methods include cost/benefit analysis, probabilistic risk assessment, and system dynamics. Exercises for Technology and Policy students include developing skills to work on the interface between technology and societal issues; simulation exercises; case studies; and group projects that illustrate issues involving multiple stakeholders with different value structures, high levels of uncertainty, multiple levels of complexity; and value trade-offs that are characteristic of engineering systems. Emphasis on negotiation, team building and group dynamics, and management of multiple actors and leadership. This course explores perspectives in the policy process - agenda setting, problem definition, framing the terms of debate, formulation and analysis of options, implementation and evaluation of policy outcomes using frameworks including economics and markets, law, and business and management. Methods include cost/benefit analysis, probabilistic risk assessment, and system dynamics. Exercises include developing skills to work on the interface between technology and societal issues; simulation exercises; case studies; and group projects that illustrate issues involving multiple stakeholders with different value structures, high levels of uncertainty, multiple levels of complexity; and value trade-offs that are characteristic of engineering systems. Emphasis on negotiation, team building and group dynamics, and management of multiple actors and leadership.

Estimated Lesson Time: 85 minutes

Students will be able to:
-Identify how the endowment effect and sunk costs affect our decision making
-Discuss how the endowment effect and sunk costs are connected to our personal finances
-Demonstrate making decisions after you’ve already spent time, money, or effort
-Choose strategies that are helpful in combating the endowment effect and sunk costs

ANSWER KEY LINKS: Create a Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) account to access answer keys. They will be listed under the Full Year Curriculum tab.

This course presents a unique and challenging perspective on the causes of human disease and mortality. The course focuses on analyses of major causes of mortality in the US since 1900: cancer cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, infectious diseases. Students create analytical models to derive estimates for historically variant population risk factors and physiological rate parameters, and conduct analyses of familial data to separately estimate inherited and environmental risks. The course evaluates the basic population genetics of dominant, recessive and non-deleterious inherited risk factors.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to
Explain what risk is and its role in investing
Analyze effective strategies to manage investment risk
Identify which strategies you might use to manage risk when you start investing

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 105 mins

Microeconomics provides an introduction to economic principles and market forces including supply and demand, labor and financial markets, elasticity, consumer choices, cost and industry structure, competition, monopoly, negative and positive externalities, economic inequality, financial markets, international trade, globalization and protectionism.

This course takes a broad-based look at poker theory and applications of poker analytics to investment management and trading.

Develop skills as science communicators through projects and analysis of theoretical principles. Case studies explore the emergence of popular science communication over the past two centuries and consider the relationships among authors, audiences and media. Project topics are identified early in the term and students work with MIT Museum staff. Projects may include physical exhibits, practical demonstrations, or scripts for public programs.

Interpretations of the concept of probability. Basic probability rules; random variables and distribution functions; functions of random variables. Applications to quality control and the reliability assessment of mechanical/electrical components, as well as simple structures and redundant systems. Elements of statistics. Bayesian methods in engineering. Methods for reliability and risk assessment of complex systems, (event-tree and fault-tree analysis, common-cause failures, human reliability models). Uncertainty propagation in complex systems (Monte Carlo methods, Latin Hypercube Sampling). Introduction to Markov models. Examples and applications from nuclear and chemical-process plants, waste repositories, and mechanical systems. Open to qualified undergraduates.

This course is an introduction to the most fundamental concepts, principles, analytical methods and tools useful for making investment and finance decisions regarding commercial real estate assets. As the first of a two-course sequence, this course will focus on the basic building blocks and the "micro" level, which pertains to individual properties and deals.

Puerto Rico's San Juan Bay Estuary faces multiple threats, including heavy use by urban populations and impacts of climate change. A workbook from the EPA's Climate Ready Estuaries program helped them catalog, prioritize, and address their climate risks.

This course is a graduate reading seminar, in which historical and contemporary studies are used to explore the interaction of technology with social and political values. Emphasis is on how technological devices, structures, and systems influence the organization of society and the behavior of its members. Examples are drawn from the technologies of war, transportation, communication, production, and reproduction.

Estimated Lesson Time: 75 minutes

Students will be able to:
-Discuss the cognitive bias of loss aversion and how we feel the effect of losses more than gains
-Make decisions that involve risk and the possibility of loss
-Analyze loss aversion from the perspective of consumers and investors
-Choose strategies that will help overcome loss aversion

ANSWER KEY LINKS: Create a Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) account to access answer keys. They will be listed under the Full Year Curriculum tab.

Students explore the physical and psychological effect of stress and tension on human beings. Concepts of stress and stress management are introduced. Students discover how perception serves to fuel a huge industry dedicated to minimizing risk and relieving stress. Students complete a writing activity focused on developing critical thinking skills. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Covers principles and methods for technical System Architecture. Presents a synthetic view including: the resolution of ambiguity to identify system goals and boundaries; the creative process of mapping form to function; the analysis of complexity and methods of decomposition and re-integration. Industrial speakers and faculty present examples from various industries. Heuristic and formal methods are presented. Restricted to SDM students.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to
Discuss best practices how to prepare for the psychological elements of investing
Determine your investor profile based on time horizon and risk tolerance
Discuss specific investing strategies
Understand what a brokerage account is and how to open one
Demonstrate your understanding of investing strategies by creating a simulated portfolio

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 175 mins

This worksheet for students gives them a chance to identify the three different classifications of business risk.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to
Define investing and distinguish it from saving and trading.
Identify reasons for investing, including outpacing inflation.
Analyze how compounding builds wealth over time.
Reflect on how investing contributes to wealth inequality.

Approximate Time
Lesson length: 90 mins