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TREX (Traveling Research Environmental eXperiences) is a six-credit field research course offered during IAP by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 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. The expeditions have generated enormous enthusiasm for learning about earth systems and determining how these systems can be managed in a sustainable way.
Each expedition focuses on one or more environmental issues in three dimensions: scientific, political and economic. Students who participate in TREX gain valuable insights into real-world ecological issues and obtain practical experience outside the classroom.
TREX I (2000) — Florida Everglades. Thirteen undergraduates traveled to the Everglades to study the role played by increased phosphate concentration in the degradation of the saw grass ecosystem.
TREX II (2001) — Hawaii (The “Big Island”), Hawaii. Fifteen students engaged in fieldwork from boats and the shoreline to determine the average flow of groundwater into the ocean. The undergrads hiked to within a foot of flowing lava on the Kilauea Volcano.
TREX III (2002) — New Zealand and Australia. Thirteen undergraduates and six M.Eng. students spent four days in the outback gathering physical, chemical and biological data on the Williams River, the drinking water source for the city of Newcastle. Students gathered data using computerized field notebooks and developed a model of the Williams River to aid in watershed management.
TREX IV (2003) — Kauai, Hawaii. Students research topics as diverse as invasive species, groundwater flow and indigenous cultures on a mountaintop in Kauai.
TREX V (2004) — Hawaii, Hawaii. The undergraduates set up an analytical wet chemistry lab in their research headquarters at the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park. The group completed thermal imaging of groundwater flux to the ocean and began work on the park's anchialine ponds.
TREX VI (2005) — Hawaii, Hawaii. Students compiled background chemistry and biodiversity data on the park's endangered anchialine ponds, and ran a 25-hour Diel experiment to track the nutrient levels over tidal cycles. Students sampled every two hours throughout the day and night.
TREX VII (2006) — Hawaii, Hawaii. Students visited Pearl Harbor to discuss the continued oil leaks of the USS Arizona, then returned to Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park to do volunteer work with Hawaiian high school students. They conducted a study comparing two native fish ponds: a eutrophied pond on Oahu and a pristine pond in Kaloko Park on Hawaii.
KATRINA (2006) — Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, eight undergraduates in Course 1.107 Environmental Chemistry and Biology Laboratory spent their spring break on Lake Pontchartrain in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana to study the lake’s sediment, as part of an optional fieldwork program.
TREX VIII (2008)—Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Hawaii, Hawaii. Sixteen students studied the groundwater hydrology related to anchialine ponds in this national park on the west coast of the island.
Contact:
Sheila Frankel
Director of TREX
Assistant Director, Parsons Laboratory
MIT Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Room 48-333
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-253-2339
sfrankel@mit.edu
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