TREX: Traveling Research Environmental eXperiences
TREX is a six-credit field research course offered during IAP to students majoring in civil or environmental engineering. TREX (Course 1.992) provides CEE undergraduates the opportunity to get hands-on fieldwork and research experience in a global context. Each expedition focuses on one or more environmental issues in three dimensions: scientific, political and economic. TREX VIII took 16 students in January 2008 to the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park in Hawaii, where they studied the groundwater hydrology related to anchialine ponds. These ponds are pools of brackish water not connected directly on the surface to the ocean, but near enough so as to be affected by changes in ocean tides. The freshwater comes from groundwater flow, in this case, off the slopes of volcanoes on the western side of the Big Island. Sophomore Adam Talsma, a 19-year-old from Guatemala City majoring in civil engineering (1C), kept a blog during the trip. The photo above shows Team Meatballz taking a dance break during a 24-hour experiment on the anchialine pond. Talsma is at far right.
Dr. Sheila Frankel, assistant director of CEE's Parsons Laboratory, is director of the TREX program.
