DEVELOPING SHORT DURATION FIELD ACTIVITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN HYDROLOGIC SCIENCES

This project is funded by a successful NSF-CCLI grant currently in effect. The objective of this project is to build a real time water quality monitoring facility by the Dry Run Creek on the University of Northern Iowa campus. The long term goal is to turn this site into a model outdoor educational resource for students to study the critical elements of the hydrologic environment. Weekly class sessions otherwise make it difficult for students to deal with the daily changes is water chemistry. Upon completion of the project, students will be able to look at the diurnal variations in the water quality through a website available for public viewing. Besides, they will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of research and learning activities directly at the site.

Four (4) pieces of instruments are in the process of being installed at the experimental site. The instruments are 1) YSI 6600 V2 extended deployment probe to measure water quality parameters in the Dry Run Creek (i.e., pH, Total Dissolved Solids, conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen, temperature, turbidity, chlorophyll, etc.); 2) OTT RLS Radar to measure water level fluctuations in the creek; 3) Hydrolab MS5 mini-sonde to continuously measure pH, TDS, conductivity, DO, temperature, turbidity, and nitrate in a 70 ft deep ground water well on the site; and 4) DL 3000 data logger to receive all data from the above 3 pieces of equipment and automatically upload them to a website. Site preparation, including digging trenches for data cable and electric wires has been completed. Instrumental calibration is in progress and the site is expected to be up and running by the end of spring. We expect that this well site expansion plan will considerably strengthen our hydrology curriculum and facilitate more effective dissemination of the project outcome.