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News Releases With LANL help, students learn about water quality during massive Rio sampling event
Scientist joins students from Santa Fe Indian School
LANL's Bob Beers (right) with students from Santa Fe Indian School.
October 21, 2010—In the biggest simultaneous sampling event ever along the Rio Grande, students from 40 schools in the U.S. and 17 in Mexico—ranging from the headwaters in southern Colorado to the estuary in the Gulf of Mexico—waded in and tested the waters.
The event, which started on October 6, ended with a ceremony last Saturday. A “water relay” performed the mixing of the waters, decanting all the samples into the estuary at Boca Chica, Texas.
LANL lends expertise
LANL water scientist Bob Beers helped a group of students take samples from the river below Cochiti Lake. Five science students from the Santa Fe Indian School used kits furnished by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Foundation to test for ten field parameters such as
- salinity
- dissolved oxygen
- turbidity
- temperature
- heavy metals
- bacteria, and
- acidity.
“I really enjoy the opportunity to work with kids and direct their excitement about environmental science,” Beers said.
Valid samples, accurate results
He brought along the electronic equipment used by water quality professionals to compare readings with the chemistry-based test results. The students learned the skill of taking valid samples and the science required to produce accurate results.
The Rio Research Roundup and Relay was conceived by Jay Johnson-Castro, Executive Director of the Rio Grande International Study Center as a confluence of experiential science education and appreciation of the water resource as an addition the Laredo, Texas- based non-profit organization’s annual Dia Del Rio Celebration.
Student reports and projects results will be posted to the Web site at http://www.diadelrio.com/.
LANL's Bob Beers (center) helped students take samples from the Rio Grande below Cochiti Lake.
The students learned that valid sampling methods can lead to accurate results.
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