Every year freshmen in Terrascope study a global problem related to sustainability, and then travel during spring break to learn about the problem in a particular location. For this year’s topic of water availability, about 50 Terrascope students and staff visited South Africa and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). Extensive discussions with NMMU students and local residents taught the MIT students how poverty, education, politics and other issues affect water security. Four
students in Subject SP.360, Terrascope Radio, taught by Terrascope and CEE lecturer Ari Epstein, created a 19-minute broadcast, “The School That Had No Water: Water Security in South Africa.” The program centers on the uplifting story of a small township school whose principal, through organization and determination, overcame the lack of access to clean water. Terrascope is a freshman learning community run by the office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education, the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, and CEE.