About Us:
Terrascope is a first-year academic advising community in which students learn to research, analyze, and develop solutions to broad scope, real world problems. In the fall semester, students take the class 12.000, Solving Complex Problems, where they are given an open ended problem and work with their classmates under minimal guidance to create a website presenting a proposed solution. Past problems have dealt with issues of resource access, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and more. This year’s problem, called “Terrascope 2026 — Water is life” was to address water insecurity on the Navajo Nation. After researching the problem and developing a proposed solution, students post their conclusion on this website, present it to experts, and answer questions about it.
Acknowledgements:
We are very grateful for the guidance given to us by Professors Steven Chischilly and Abhishek Roychowdhury of Navajo Technical University, Brandon Francis, Karyn Denny, and Professor Demetra Skaltsas and Benita Litson of Diné College. Many of the ideas in this proposal were inspired by conversations with them and talks they presented in our class, and we very much appreciate their time and help.
We could not have done the research or work we did without the help of our amazing undergraduate teaching fellows Athena Wang, Deepta Gupta, Esther Kinyanjui, Iselle Barrios, Jordan Sell, Katherine Crowley, Katherine Pan, Lauren Shrack, Max Burns, Nicole Harris, Sarah Hernandez, and Tova Kleiner. We would also like to thank staff members Dr. Ari Epstein (Associate Director and Lecturer for Terrascope), Benjamin Tiger (Graduate Teaching Assistant for 12.000 Solving Complex Problems), Prof. David McGee (Terrascope Director), and Michelle Contos (Terrascope Community Coordinator) for their contributions. Thank you for supporting us throughout our journey.
With love,
Terrascope 2026