FINDING TIME AND THE "RIGHT" TECHNOLOGY FOR RESEARCH

Solitary faculty may face problems doing research not experienced by those in larger departments. Solitary faculty may serve in smaller institutions that may be resource-poor. They may have relatively high teaching and service obligations. Getting any research done depends on cobbling together a variety of time and technology opportunities depending on the research topic and student interest.

Unity College is a small environmental college. Most students have more than a passing interest in water quality; translating that interest into reliable high quality research can still be a challenge. Take arsenic for example. Many drinking water wells in Unity are contaminated with arsenic. The preferred methodology for analyzing arsenic in water is by GFAA or ICP. How can we get reliable data without one of these instruments or the funds to send all of our samples out?

Students have participated in this research project using a wide variety of mechanisms to find time. Those include: one – three credit independent study courses, class projects (including but not limited to service learning), work-study time and “chemistry play dates”. Occasionally, there is time available (with modest pay) during the summer as well. Students used one or more of these time wedges to help figure out a usable technology in the Unity College Water Lab to determine the arsenic concentration of local waters.

Over the course of four years, we have evaluated two field methods for the determination of arsenic in drinking water samples. We attempted to determine the diurnal variation of arsenic concentration in one well; we figured out why the method we were using didn’t work well for us and we evaluated the Arsenator in the lab. In the next 2 years we will have an “Arsenic Fair” and attempt to determine the correlation between arsenic concentration, aquifer, and other water quality parameters on Main Street in Unity, Maine.