“MOM, DON’T EAT THOSE TOMATOES” OR WHAT A COURSE BASED RESEARCH EXPERIENCE ON BACKYARD SOIL TESTING TAUGHT STUDENTS IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY COURSE

For students majoring in environmental geology and environmental science a course in Environmental Geology is essential. However, going through the motions and following a classic textbook on Environmental Geology and giving lectures and working out problems on volcanoes and earthquakes and their impacts to a class of urban students in the Northeast might not be the best answer to their educational success. The majority of our majors at New Jersey City University are looking for a career in environmental consulting firms and New Jersey has plenty of jobs for them. NJ is the fourth smallest state in the union and has the largest number of Superfund sites in the country as well as additional brownfields and other areas ready for clean-up. In my 300-level Environmental Geology course, I devote most of the second half of the semester of the class to the investigation of soil from a student’s backyard or nearby park. Since all of our students are commuter students and most all live in Hudson County the research that these students undertake on their soil can also be used for a long-term monitoring and assessment project that my colleagues and I have been conducting during the past 10 years on the soils of Jersey City and Hudson County. Students were asked to analyze their soils using a variety of techniques (physical and chemical) and write a comprehensive soil report. The students used both low tech instrumentation (Ro-tap for particle analysis) and high-tech (Micromeritics SediGraph III Plus) as well as simple LaMotte soil test kits and a portable XRF (Thermo Niton XL3t). Most students wrote well defined reports that clearly stated their aims, methods, results, recommendations and limitations. At the end of the project some students were very concerned that their backyards had such high levels of lead (Pb) contamination (e.g. 3245+/-36 ppm; 2314+/-77ppm). These students immediately asked their parents to stop growing vegetables in their backyards. Overall, a project like this raises awareness; it instills responsibility and stewardship and gives them extra motivation not just the sense of doing busy lab work. They not only get valuable field and laboratory experience that they may one day parley into a technical career, but they also have the immediate benefit of doing something good for their families or community.