Students' Perceptions of Terrascope, A Project-Based Freshman Learning Community

We present a descriptive case study of Terrascope, an innovative, year-long, project-based learning community at MIT. Each year, Terrascope students study a particular environmental or Earth-system problem from a multidisciplinary perspective. Terrascope includes both academic and non-academic compo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bras, Rafael L. (Contributor), Epstein, Ari W. (Contributor), Hodges, Kip Vernon (Contributor), Lipson, Alberta (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Teaching and Learning Laboratory (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of Experiential Learning (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Netherlands, 2009-10-19T13:29:43Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Bras, Rafael L.  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Teaching and Learning Laboratory  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of Experiential Learning  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Epstein, Ari W.  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Lipson, Alberta  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Hodges, Kip Vernon  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Bras, Rafael L.  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Epstein, Ari W.  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Epstein, Ari W.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Hodges, Kip Vernon  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Lipson, Alberta  |e author 
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520 |a We present a descriptive case study of Terrascope, an innovative, year-long, project-based learning community at MIT. Each year, Terrascope students study a particular environmental or Earth-system problem from a multidisciplinary perspective. Terrascope includes both academic and non-academic components; this paper focuses on the academic components. The objectives of the academic subjects, and of the program as a whole, involve helping students develop their team-building, communication, problem-solving, and self-regulatory learning skills. This study focuses on cohorts of students from the first and second years of the program (2002-2003 and 2003-2004); it is based on end-of-semester surveys and focus groups, and on additional focus groups conducted when these students were upperclassmen. Students felt Terrascope helped them make significant improvements in their ability to work in teams and to take on complex, multidisciplinary problems. They felt that the program's two-semester structure gave them an opportunity to develop and nurture these skills, and that the program prepared them well for their later work at MIT. They also felt that being engaged, as freshmen, in a distinct learning community, significantly eased their transition into MIT. We describe lessons learned in the development of Terrascope and offer suggestions for other institutions planning to develop similar programs. 
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690 |a self-directed learning 
690 |a environmental education 
690 |a freshman 
690 |a teamwork 
690 |a interdisciplinary learning 
690 |a project-based learning 
690 |a experiential learning 
690 |a assessment 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Journal of Science Education and Technology