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, problemsolving, 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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a Lecturer in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, earned a Ph.D. in Oceanography (specializing in physical/biological interactions) in a program run jointly by MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is particularly interested in free-choice learning, such as the learning that happens through museums, media, libraries and community-based organizations.
INTRODUCTION: For over 50 yr, investigators have studied the physiological adaptations of the human system during short- and long-duration spaceflight exposures. Much of the knowledge gained in developing health countermeasures for astronauts onboard the International Space Station demonstrate terrestrial applications. To date, a systematic process for translating these space applications to terrestrial human health has yet to be defined.METHODS: In the summer of 2017, a team of 38 international scientists launched the Bellagio ll Summit Initiative. The goals of the Summit were: 1) To identify space medicine findings and countermeasures with highest probability for future terrestrial applications; and 2) To develop a roadmap for translation of these countermeasures to future terrestrial application. The team reviewed public domain literature, NASA databases, and evidence books within the framework of the five-stage National Institutes of Health (NIH) translation science model, and the NASA two-stage translation model. Teams then analyzed and discussed interdisciplinary findings to determine the most significant evidence-based countermeasures sufficiently developed for terrestrial application.RESULTS: Teams identified published human spaceflight research and applied translational science models to define mature products for terrestrial clinical practice.CONCLUSIONS: The Bellagio ll Summit identified a snapshot of space medicine research and mature science with the highest probability of translation and developed a Roadmap of terrestrial application from space medicine-derived countermeasures. These evidence-based findings can provide guidance regarding the terrestrial applications of best practices, countermeasures, and clinical protocols currently used in spaceflight.Sides MB, Johnston SL III, Sirek A, Lee PH, Blue RS, Antonsen EL, Basner M, Douglas GL, Epstein A, Flynn-Evans EE, Gallagher MB, Hayes J, Lee SMC, Lockley SW, Monseur B, Nelson NG, Sargsyan A, Smith SM, Stenger MB, Stepanek J, Zwart SR; Bellagio II Team. Bellagio II report: terrestrial applications of space medicine research. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(8):650669.
is a lecturer in the MIT Terrascope program, and also in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is the lead developer and instructor of Terrascope Radio and serves as the director of Terrascope Youth Radio. He is particularly interested in team-oriented, project-based learning, and in bridging the gap between learning in formal academic settings and learning in "free-choice" or "informal" settings, such as museums, media and clubs. Beverly Mire, Cambridge Youth Programs BEVERLY MIRE is assistant director for education at Terrascope Youth Radio. She also teaches media literacy and video production for Healthy Malden, Inc., and for the Association for Retarded Citizens of Eastern Middlesex (Mass.). A youth media specialist since 1992, her primary focus is using media as a tool to engage underserved youth in activities that will expose them to college life.
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