Open Days
Register for our Open Day
On November 2–8, 2025, DAIS and Huamei students will be participating in a once-in-a-lifetime trip to MIT in Boston, where they will explore the MIT campus and will be led through an inspirational program. The NAE STEAM support team has developed an exciting series of activities designed to help students collaborate, connect with MIT faculty, and develop valuable skills such as curiosity, creativity, and commitment. We believe this will be a memorable and motivating experience for our students, giving them a sense of self-accomplishment.
Creativity and thinking outside the box lead to great innovations that impact our world in amazing ways. NAE's collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers your child an introduction to interdisciplinary STEAM learning, providing a lifelong foundation for curiosity and real-world problem solving. Our students enjoy collaborating with peers to tackle real-world challenges similar to those being explored by MIT professors and researchers today.
MIT campus
The MIT–Nord Anglia STEAM collaboration equips students with the skills and mindset needed to thrive in our rapidly evolving world. Rooted in MIT's motto "Mens et Manus"—Latin for "Mind and Hand"—the program immerses students in real-world problem solving through hands-on, interdisciplinary learning across science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. Through this university-inspired approach, students develop curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking essential for success in the 21st century.
This program is focused on the following core aspects:
Each year, the MIT Challenges invite students to step inside the world of cutting-edge research and innovation, showing how creativity and collaboration can solve real-world problems. With three new themes introduced annually, our students consistently rise to the occasion with impressive results. In the 2025–26 TeamWorks! challenges encourage students to collaborate and innovate through three diverse, real-world problem-solving experiences.
Our unique NAE Global Campus platform has more to offer. The website contains all the challenges alongside Abstract videos (lectures from MIT postdoctoral students) and Ask MIT videos (where our students get to ask MIT faculty their curious questions).
Nord Anglia teachers receive hands-on training at MIT from renowned and influential researchers and academics. These workshops are with leading engineers and scientists on fascinating subjects, from climate change to bioengineering, space exploration, and beyond.
The MIT high school student trip is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for your child, enabling them to stretch their thinking, meet like-minded friends, and experience life as a student at MIT. There are limited places available for this amazing opportunity to visit MIT. Students are asked to submit a poster and video application that demonstrates their creativity and motivation to join the trip.
MIT Student Trip 2023
This year, three students from Dalian American International School and Dalian Huamei School were shortlisted among the top sixty-seven learners out of over 500 applicants from all Nord Anglia schools worldwide. Their challenge was to think of a problem or issue they are passionate about and design a creative solution using the resources available at MIT. How can cutting-edge technology, research, or innovation from MIT help solve this problem?
Let's take a closer look at what our students worked on.
Dennis Luo, Grade 11: "I value the MIT Challenge as an opportunity to break our conventional tendency towards accepting the world as it is. Just because of some practices and systems that have been utilized for centuries, it does not imply that they are indeed effective, efficient, or sustainable. The challenge itself enabled me to contemplate the struggles of our local community, and inspired me to delve into brainstorming brave, innovative solutions. In particular, I looked at Dalian's aquaculture industry, which has for long relied on outdated techniques, posing potential risks of pollution, disease outbreaks, and resource depletion.
With my newfound understanding of machine learning in the age of artificial intelligence, I proposed a next-generation sea cucumber farm, eliminating human's bias in the process of monitoring and maintenance with trained models that provide reliable feedback. Overall, it was a unique and challenging experience - one that inspires passion, promotes inquiry, and above all, reminds us to stay curious in a society where increasing reliance on LLMs is threatening our critical and creative mind."
Dennis's project
Kenneth Zhang, Grade 11: "Throughout my school days, it was tough for me to find that one thing I wanted to do the most. As more and more of my peers start to find their zeal for certain subjects, I was lost among all the different things I had an interest in, which most of them lasted long enough to stay in my interest.
The message of an MIT challenge initially caught my eye, and it immediately extracted all my interest. Surely, after some time I started to prepare for this challenge while Ms. and Mr. Diarez helped me polish my skills even further. To me, it wasn’t just an unordinary field trip to one of the most prestigious universities to study STEAM; it was an aberrated opportunity for me to delve into a pool of my interests and locate where my passion lies."
Kenneth's project
Johnny Li, Grade 11: "Countdown is on for the MIT trip! I can’t believe how fortunate I am to be able to share my research and learn from one of the world’s most innovative cities. My project, SDM’s Model: AI and Wildlife Conservation, investigates how artificial intelligence can be used to save endangered species such as Goniurosaurus luii by forecasting their suitable habitats.
This experience has shown me that data science and ecology can converge to make a difference to the environment. I can’t wait to share ideas with people, hear about some inspiring researches in person and implement new ideas into my own studies."
Johnny's project
Best of luck to our students and their chaperone, science teacher Ms. Ana Diarez, as they get ready for their trip to MIT this November! We cannot wait to hear about their experience.
All students from Grades 8–10 who are interested in participating in this amazing opportunity next year, look out for the upcoming challenge announcement. Don't miss your chance to be selected for the MIT trip in 2026!
