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A comprehensive set of real-world environmental laboratory experiments This complete summary of laboratory work presents a richly detailed set of classroom-tested experiments along with background information, safety and hazard notes, a list of chemicals and solutions needed, data collection sheets, and blank pages for compiling results and findings. This useful resource also: * Focuses on environmental, i.e., \"dirty\" samples * Stresses critical concepts like analysis techniques and documentation * Includes water, air, and sediment experiments * Includes an interactive software package for pollutant fate and transport modeling exercises * Functions as a student portfolio of documentation abilities * Offers instructors actual samples of student work for troubleshooting, notes on each procedure, and procedures for solutions preparation.

Most chemistry and biology teachers will agree that students have a \"disconnect\" between these two disciplines. This likely results from the categorization of the topics into two classes or two separate years of study. In this article, the author provides one example of how the two disciplines can be related in an environmental application that many students have first-hand experience with: diving into a stratified water body. The stratification (a physical process) is explained first, and then the chemistry that results from the stratification is considered. He presents an integrated limnology, microbiology and chemistry exercise for teaching summer lake stratification, nutrient consumption and chemical thermodynamics, and discusses his observations and suggestions for using this exercise. (Contains 6 figures.)

The transport of pollutants in groundwater systems is an important concept taught in contaminant hydrology. Yet, surprisingly, no relevant soil column experiments have been described in the pedagogical literature (Journal of Chemical Education, Chemical Education Research and Practice, or Journal of Geoscience Education). This experiment illustrates the transport of tracers in a sand column using the conservative (non-retained and non-reactive) tracer fluorescein, along with a step input of non-conservative (retained/adsorbed) cadmium ion. The experiment is easy to set up, uses inexpensive commercially-available glassware and sand, and is highly reproducible. Step inputs of conservative tracer elute in one pore volume (the volume needed to completely replace the water held in the saturated column), with cadmium eluting in three pore volumes. This experiment can be completed in two, three-hour laboratory periods.

Numerous colleges and universities offer chemistry, geology, biology, and mathematics courses for students not majoring in science. However, these courses are often taught in a segmented format, spread over a four-year period, with separate lectures and laboratories, and in different departments. We are experimenting with a series of courses that combine a variety of disciplines into three courses that are taught in an integrated lab-lecture format using case studies and guided-inquiry teaching methods. We have developed a variety of modules for these courses. This article describes one case-study module that allows the student to evaluate data sets to study greenhouse gases and determine if global warming is real and due to anthropogenic activities. The exercise stresses hands-on activities and includes performing two laboratory exercises, the use of two computer programs, a mathematical exercise, an Internet and spreadsheet exercise, and interpretation of scientific data sets and figures. The entire module requires at least 18 contact hours.

A coupled field-scale aquifer pumping and water infiltration test was conducted at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in order to evaluate subsurface water and contaminant transport processes in a heterogeneous flow system. The test included an aquifer pumping test to determine the storage properties of the aquifer and the state of confinement of the aquifer (approximately) 190 m below land surface, and a vadose zone infiltration test to determine vertical moisture and radioactive tracer migration rates. Pump test results indicated that the Snake River Plain Aquifer was locally unconfined with a transmissivity ranging from 5.57 x 10(5) to 9.29 x 10(4) m2/day. Moisture monitoring with neutron probes indicated that infiltrating water was initially transported vertically through the upper basalt layer of the vadose zone, primarily through fractures and rubble zones, at an average rate of 5 m/day (based on vertical distance traveled and first arrival of water at the monitoring points). Analysis of breakthrough curves for a conservative tracer allowed estimation of the arrival of the peak concentration and yielded an average velocity of 1 m/day. The migration velocities from the neutron probe and tracer tests are in good agreement given the scale of the test and difference in analysis techniques. None of the data sets showed a correlation between migration velocity (arrival time) and distance from the point source, but they strongly indicate preferential flow through discrete fractures. Upon reaching the first continuous sedimentary interbed layer in the basalt formation, water flow was diverted laterally along the interbed surface where it spread outward in primarily three areas corresponding to topographic lows on the interbed surface, and slowly infiltrated into the interbed. The nonpredictable movement of water and tracer through specific fractures underlying the site suggests that a priori prediction of transmissive fractures in this media

Monitoring the movement of contaminants throughout the vadose zone requires the use of wells and the credibility of a monitoring program depends on obtaining an adequate seal between the well casing and borehole wall. The credibility of monitoring well installation was evaluated during the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory's Large Scale Pumping and Infiltration Test. Wells were drilled in and around a 6.5 acre infiltration basin with an air rotary rig using a downhole hammer, cased with PVC or steel, and the annular space back-filled with alternating layers of bentonite and sand. The purpose of completing the wells in this manner was to isolate fractured intervals (subvertical and subhorizontal interflow zones) in order to observe water movement during the infiltration test. Bentonite was used between sand intervals to prevent the borehole (or annular space) from serving as a conduit for vertical water flow or tracer migration. Neutron probes were used to confirm the presence and locations of each completion interval (sand or bentonite) by distinguishing differences in background-water content of the back-filling materials. Upon flooding of the infiltration basin with water containing radioactive tracers, water flow and tracer transport were monitored using neutron probes and an in situ, downhole gamma spectroscopy system, respectively. Results confirm that each well was installed correctly; water and tracers flowed through natural fractures in the subsurface and arrived at the monitoring sites located at sand completion zones. Significant water or tracer flow through the annular space between the well casing and borehole was not observed

Faculty members at Hartwick College are taking a joint approach by teaching science to some of the school's non-science majors through a new series of science-integrated courses while other students are taught using the more traditional non-science, discipline-segmented courses. The central theme of these courses is \"The Science of the Environment.\"