Course Notes

This page presents lecture materials in several forms:

  • Illustrated notebooks prepared by Nathan Cooke
  • Selected detailed lecture notes prepared by Jessica Huang
  • Selected lecture slides and supporting material

Flickr photo collection of various lectures, labs, and activities

SES # CLASS TOPICS NOTEBOOKS DETAILED NOTES SLIDES & SUPPORTING MATERIAL
1 Introduction (PDF) (PDF)

Slides (PDF - 4.7MB)

World Fact Quiz teaching note (PDF)
2

D-Lab philosophy of development

Stakeholder analysis & participation

Role play activity: wheelchairs

 (PDF) (PDF)

Slides (PDF - 2.1MB)

Wheelchair role play: teaching note and instructions (PDF)
3 History of development: (1950-1970): The colonial legacy (PDF) (PDF) Slides (PDF)
4

History of development: (1970-1990)

Appropriate technology

Intermediate technology

 (PDF) (PDF)  
5

History of development: (1990-present)

Millennium development goals

Participatory development

Co-Creation

Guest speaker: Mitch Resnick (MIT Media Lab)

 (PDF) (PDF) Slides (PDF - 1.3MB)
6

Entrepreneurship, government, and development in Africa

Guest speaker: John Kufuor, (former president of Ghana)

 (PDF) (PDF) Video of this talk: "Entrepreneurship, Government, and Development in Africa." MIT World. September 21, 2009.
7

Agriculture

Agricultural technology showcase: post-harvest processing

 (PDF) (PDF) Slides (PDF - 1.8MB)
8

Projects and partners: China, India, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia

 (PDF)    
9

Projects and partners: Peru, Ecuador, Brazil

Agricultural technology showcase: drip irrigation

 (PDF)    
10 Country team meetings      
11

Agricultural focus groups:

- Green revolution
- Agriculture and external aid
- Agriculture and human rights

 (PDF) (PDF)  
12

Energy: biomass, biogas and biodiesel

Energy lab: charcoal

 (PDF)   Slides (PDF - 2.3MB)
13

Energy: sun

Energy labs: photovoltaics, LED lighting

Guest speaker: Jim Bales (MIT Edgerton Center)

 (PDF)    
14

Energy: human power

Energy lab: human power production

   (PDF)  
15

Energy: Wind and water

Guest speakers: Shawn Frayne (Humdinger Wind Energy), Peter Haas (Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group)

 (PDF)  

 

 
16

Modeling energy systems

Village energy assessment

HOMER

 (PDF)   HOMER download (free registration required)
17

Water quality I

Water lab 1: bacterial testing

 (PDF)  

"Low-Cost Water Testing Apparatus." (PDF) (Courtesy of the TestWaterCheap team from MIT course Design that Matters, 2004. Used with permission.)

Spreadsheet of student lab results (XLS)
18

Water issues in the developing world

Guest speaker: Susan Murcott

 (PDF) (PDF) Safe Water for 1 Billion People (H2O-1B)
19

Harnessing the wind

Guest speaker: William Kamkwamba

 (PDF) (PDF)

Video of William Kamkwamba's talk at MIT Technology & Culture Forum (later that same day). TechTV, October 27, 2009.

Videos from TED:
20

Water quality II

Water lab 2: chemical testing

      
21

Institutions of development: WB and IMF

Guest speaker: Rachel Glennerster (Executive Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL))

 (PDF)   Slides (PDF) (Courtesy of Rachel Glennerster. Used with permission.)
22

Institutions of development

Role of NGOs in development

 (PDF)    
23 Microfinance (PDF)   Slides (PDF)
24

Micro-enterprise case study: Grameen Phone

Guest speaker: Iqbal Quadir, (Founder & Director, MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship)

 (PDF) (PDF)  
25

Discussion of Drowned Out

Guest speaker: Balakrishnan Rajagopal

 (PDF) (PDF)  
26 ICT4D (PDF)    
27

ICT4C

Guest speaker: Mitch Resnick

Scratch activity

 (PDF) (PDF) SCRATCH website
28

Creative capacity building

Concrete

Concrete lab

 (PDF) (PDF)  
29

Cooking

Cooking lab

      
30 The AIDS/HIV crisis (PDF)    
31

Health issues in the developing world

Guest speaker: Jose Gomez-Marquez (MIT; Innovations in International Health (IIH))

 (PDF) (PDF - 3.0MB)  
32 Team presentations (PDF)   See presentations on the projects page
33

Valuing indigenous knowledge

Cultural taboos

Cultural implications of development

 (PDF)    
34

Market approaches to development

Supply chains

Guest speaker: Paul Polak (International Development Enterprises (IDE))

Role play activity: water resources

 (PDF) (PDF)

Water role play: teaching note and instructions (PDF)

Paul Polak's website
35

What works: lessons from J-PAL

Guest speaker: Kamilla Gumede (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL))

 (PDF) (PDF) (PDF - 1.3MB) (Courtesy of Kamilla T. Gumede. Used with permission.)
36

Climate change sustainability

Guest speaker: Ben Linder

 (PDF) (PDF)  
37 Panel discussion with Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) fellows (PDF)    
38 Evaluations      
39 Final posters and presentations