Calendar · Lecture Notes
MIT OpenCourseWare
Freshman Seminar: The Nature of Engineering
Art: Georg Agricola, De re metallica - dowsing (125711292), 1556 · Public domain
- Instructor
- Lorna Gibson
- Term
- Fall 2005
- Level
- Undergraduate
- What's inside
- 1 video · 1 reading · 17 other files · 3 web pages
- Materials open
- Videos here · files on MIT OCW
About this course
Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 3.A26 Freshman Seminar: The Nature of Engineering, Fall 2005, Lorna Gibson — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.
Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.
Before you start
Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.
How this course was organized
What's here, and what isn't
- A lecture sequence of 5 items is confirmed. No assignments or exams were found for this course, so it stays as organized materials rather than a full course order.
Not included here
6 items from the source could not be safely included:
- MIT's page format for this item wasn't recognized clearly enough to place it safely. (6 items)
Materials by section
Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.
Syllabus
Readings
- Engineering of Trees: Handout 1 Download
- Engineering of Trees: Handout 2 Download
- Engineering of Trees: Handout 3 Download
Projects
13 files
- Project Brainstorming List Download
- Beam Bending: Wood vs. Aluminum (Courtesy of Peden Nichols, Jing Han, and Michael Johnson. Used with permission.) Download
- Displays The Mystery of Bird Migration Download
- Woodpecker Tail Feathers Download
- The Flight of Birds Download
- Woodpecker Pecking Download
- Bird’s Stick Nest: Structural and Material Analysis Download
- Presentations How Tall Can A Tree Grow? Download
- The Science of Laminated Wood Download
- Posters How High Can A Tree Grow? Download
- The Mechanics of Glue Laminated Wood: Version 1 Download
- Version 2 Download
- Tubes Download
Other materials from this course
Course outline
Calendar · Lecture Notes
Lecture 2: Museum of Science Visit
Calendar · Lecture Notes
Lecture 3: CBC Video on Biomimicking
Calendar · Lecture Notes
Lecture 11: Projects due
Calendar · Lecture Notes
Lecture 12: Visit to Scanning Electron Microscope
MIT OpenCourseWare, Lorna Gibson, 3.A26 Freshman Seminar: The Nature of Engineering, Fall 2005.
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Fall 2005 · Open the original course on OCW ↗
Organized by RedLectern, independent of MIT and not endorsed by MIT.
Per-resource rights are recorded on each resource; All-Rights-Reserved items are link-only, never mirrored.
