Environmental solution logo

This website features work from the completion of Phase 1 of the SCALES Project.

We are currently seeking partnerships for Phase 2.

Place-Based Learning

Place-based learning involves learners interacting with their local community. With components of inquiry-based learning, experiential learning and/or service learning, place-based learning encourages the learner to ask questions about the local place which could touch on environmental issues, economic issues or issues of social equity. 

  • Assignment 3 – Observe a Public Meeting

    Attend a public meeting in the Boston area, take careful notes on the event, and report back in a succinct, well-organized informational memo. Be sure to also collect any materials distributed at the event for reference. Your memo should describe the organization, discuss where its power originates, identify the purpose of the meeting, explain the structure of the deliberative process used to collect input, and discuss what, if any, outcome resulted.

    Read more: Assignment 3 – Observe a Public Meeting

  • Assignment 1 – Hometown Analysis

    A critical part of creating policy is the data gathering process. What data can you find quickly and analyze? What do the data mean? What story can you tell using reliable data? What data do you need?

    Using your hometown as the subject of your investigation, assume that you are a policy analyst and you work for the new mayor or the new town or city council.

    What data can you use to tell a story about your hometown? Where is it located? How many people live there? What does it provide in terms of resources to the state?

    Read more: Assignment 1 – Hometown Analysis

  • Sector Paper

    Write a five-page paper (double-spaced, not including figures, tables or pictures) describing the current state of affairs in your country in one of the sectors that we have studied in class:

    Read more: Sector Paper

  • Drowned Out

    If you can't make it to the evening film screening, view DVD of Drowned Out on your own time prior to class on Ses #25.

    Read more: Drowned Out

  • Artifacts, Layers, Traces, and Trends

    Now the objective is to find traces of these changes present in the current environment and to interpret their significance. Many of you were attracted to your site because of some anomalous features that puzzled you and made you wonder why they were there and what had caused them to be. This is an opportunity to explore some answers to such puzzles.

    Read more: Artifacts, Layers, Traces, and Trends

  • Your Site through Time

    This is the third part of a four-part, semester-long project. The first part consisted of finding a site; the second, to find evidence of its environmental history and ongoing natural processes. Now the task is to trace changes on your site over time by comparing its character at several points in time, using maps. You may find different kinds of changes: Land use, density of settlement, additions to buildings, ownership, transportation. The types of sources you will find helpful are historical maps, especially nineteenth and twentieth-century atlases, and may also include plans, prints, and photographs. 

    Read more: Your Site through Time

  • Your Site and Natural Processes

    This is the second part of a four-part, semester-long project. The first part consisted of finding a site. Now the task is to find evidence on your site of its environmental history and ongoing natural processes. The objective, through the examination of your site and its context, is to explore how natural processes shape cities.

    Read more: Your Site and Natural Processes

  • Select a Site

    In 2016, MIT will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its move from Boston's Back Bay to the current location in Cambridge. To honor that occasion, this year the class will focus on MIT's former and current neighborhoods, so you should select a site within the designated boundaries in Cambridge or the Back Bay. The site should be between four and eight blocks. Ideally, it should include more than one type of land use. And it should be a place that intrigues you. Reflect on why it interests you, why you are drawn to it. What questions does the place raise, for which you hope to find answers this semester?

    Read more: Select a Site

  • Methane Leaks Field trip

    Objective: Hands-on field activity collecting data on real-word methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure in Cambridge and Somerville MA. Familiarize two sets of 5–8 participants with the tools and methods.

    Read more: Methane Leaks Field trip

  • National Environmental Policy-making

    Given what you have read in Unit 1 and what we have discussed in class, provide the simplest model you can of national environmental policy-making for any country you choose. 

    Read more: National Environmental Policy-making

Notice something that doesn’t seem right? Want to make a suggestion or provide feedback about how something is classified? 
Please reach out to esi [at] mit.edu and include SCALES Website in the subject of your email.
Feedback and any actions taken with regards to the feedback, will be shared as they are addressed.