Groundwater Consulting Lab

Karen Kortz

Community College of Rhode Island

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection and has been reviewed by 1 other review process

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This page first made public: May 1, 2008

Summary

Students are given a real-world scenario in this lab exercise in which they must determine the extent of groundwater contamination while staying within a budget. They progressively request more information and summarize their findings on a map.

Contaminant hydrology, Groundwater , Point Source Pollution, Organic ...(more) | College Introductory

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Context

Audience

Introductory physical geology for non-majors

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students must be able to determine the direction of the flow of groundwater based on a water table contour map.

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity is part of a lab on groundwater.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Predict movement of groundwater contaminants

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Analysis of data; formation and testing of hypothesis; synthesis of data

Other skills goals for this activity

Working in groups

Description of the activity/assignment

In groups, students are given a scenario of a leaking underground storage tank. They must decide where to sample on the map while staying within budget. Students progressively collect more data and use them to make an interpretation of the direction of groundwater flow and extent of the contamination. The activity requires that students use their limited resources to solve a real-world problem.

Determining whether students have met the goals

The final map on which students draw their interpretation of the direction and extent of the contamination is reviewed.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Teaching materials and tips

Activity Description/Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 25kB May1 08)

Modifications on this activity from the community

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Contributed by Katherine Ryker

In Spring 2020, this was part of a lab that went online during the COVID-19 pandemic. To adapt the data retrieval part of the exercise, students used a Google spreadsheet version of the table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qcbryj8splqzP1cnlJ1ZF6gz8_wARPJNB4_D1qFAmjI/edit?usp=sharing

The data in the second tab is randomized in the first column; each TPH value is listed only once on the far right, so multiple "Yes" cells link to each one. The idea was to make it harder (though not impossible) for a student to easily pull all of the values.

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Contributed by Allie Nagurney, University of Puget Sound

I used this in my intro geology course (30 students, mostly non-majors) at the University of Puget Sound in Fall 2021.

My students really liked being able to 'make decisions' about geology and this activity helped them to understand the flow paths of groundwater very well.

I did this during a 50 minute class period. We were a little short on time to finish it, mostly because I was the only person handing out the answers. In the future, I would modify this so that I had a TA or another instructor helping so that there is not a lot of wait time for the students.