The class meets twice a week, on Tuesday and on Fridays. The Tuesday class is usually seminar-style with students presenting and discussing papers assigned by the upcoming guest speaker. A full list of readings is available. The Friday class features guest speakers.
| Week # | Seminars | Guest Lectures | Key Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introductions, syllabus, and schedule | No guest lecture | |
| 2 | Student-led discussion of readings | Kerry Emanuel (MIT): An Overview of Climate Change | |
| 3 | Student-led discussion of readings | No guest lecture | |
| 4 | Student-led discussion of readings | David McGee (MIT): Paleoclimatology and Extreme Climates | Project Deadline: Submit project team (names of 1–2 people) and a short paragraph for 2–3 possible topics |
| 5 | Student-led discussion of readings | Raffaele Ferrari (MIT): Ocean Dynamics and Modeling | |
| 6 | Student-led discussion of readings | Noelle Selin (MIT): Environmental Science and Governance | |
| 7 | No seminar | John Deutch (MIT): The Optimum Allocation of Available Budget to Joint Climate Control Mechanisms | Project Deadline: Submit a 1–2 page project proposal |
| 8 | In-class climate model demo | Francis O'Sullivan (MIT): Energy and Climate | |
| 9 | Student-led discussion of readings | Paul O'Gorman (MIT): Atmospheric Science and Machine Learning | |
| 10 | Replaced with a second guest lecture: John Sterman (MIT) on Climate Policy Simulations | Dava Newman and Gui Trotti (MIT): Earth’s Vital Signs Revealed: A View from Space for Action on Earth | |
| 11 | En-ROADS climate simulator | John Reilly (MIT): Economic Modeling | |
| 12 | Student-led discussion of readings | Bill Weihl (MIT / Akamai / Google / Facebook / ...): On How Companies can Contribute | |
| 13 | Debriefing: Lessons learned, confusions, and open questions | No guest lecture | |
| 14 | Project presentations | No guest lecture | |
| 15 | Project presentations | No guest lecture | Project Deadline: Final written report due |