Water Quality Acquisition
Summary
In this activity, students visit two sites to practice their field water sample collection and water quality assessment skills. They go to a landfill and use a vertical well-water sampler and downhole water quality probes to measure ground-water conductivity, pH, and temperature at different depths. Collected water-conductivity data is contoured to map the distribution of a contaminant plume. Students then study acid mine drainage by using water-quality meters to compare pH and conductivity values up and down stream of an open-pit mine.
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Learning Goals
- Obtain hands-on, practical experience of field data acquisition using appropriate instrumentation.
- Experience the ground-water investigation process from field data collection to hand and computational data analysis and final interpretation.
- Become better prepared for environmental employment.
Context for Use
This is the first of nine one-week exercises designed for a senior-level undergraduate lecture/lab hydrogeology course.
Description and Teaching Materials
The following equipment is required:
- vertical well-water sampler
- downhole water quality probes
- water-quality meters
Assessment
The author is seeking feedback from companies that hire students that have gone through the course that this activity is from to see if this training provides a positive impact on job performance.
References and Resources
The activity is from the following article:
See the other eight related activities derived from this article:
- Lee, 1998, Hands-On Laboratory Exercises for an Undergraduate Hydrogeology Course. Journal of Geoscience Education v. 46, p. 433. Contact the author to request furthur details and copies of the laboratory exercises.
See the other eight related activities derived from this article: