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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #139353
Title: DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY TEACHING LABORATORY AND SUPPLEMENTARY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Author
item Pappas, Elizabeth
item MOHTAR, R - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item RAHBEN, M - PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: ASAE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/28/2002
Publication Date: 7/28/2002
Citation: Warnemuende, E.A., Mohtar, R., Rahben, M. 2002. Development of an environmental quality teaching laboratory and supplementary experiential learning activities. In: ASAE Annual International Meeting Proceedings. July 28-31, 2002, Chicago, Illinois. 2002 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary: In an effort to improve the ability of agriculturally and environmentally oriented graduates to work in interdisciplinary teams to solve problems, an environmental quality teaching laboratory was developed. This laboratory provides several types of student experiences which are known to bring about more effective learning versus traditional instructional methods. Students learn to utilize state of the art equipment and interpret soil and water quality data. In one learning activity, students representing several departments worked together to identify potential agricultural sources of water pollution in a local watershed. Students used web based materials to become familiar with sampling and analysis techniques, collected water samples from 16 locations in the watershed for bacterial and chemical analyses, analyzed the samples in the environmental quality laboratory and then combined the data they generated with GIS land use data to identify potential agricultural impacts to water quality. By collecting water samples, documenting details of the sample sites, analyzing samples in the laboratory, and interpreting the results, students gained a "complete picture" understanding of water quality assessment.

Technical Abstract: In an effort to improve the ability of agriculturally and environmentally oriented graduates to work in interdisciplinary teams to solve problems, an environmental quality teaching laboratory was developed. In this laboratory, virtual, field, and laboratory experiences provide the experiential and collaborative learning activities known to bring about more effective student learning versus traditional instructional methods. In order to address soil and water quality issues, the laboratory was instrumented with ion chromatography, an environmental microbiology station with membrane filtration capabilities, portable ion specific probes, pH and electrical conductivity meters, and a soil block equipped with a spatial leachate sampling system, soil water samplers, and time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes. In one learning activity, students representing several departments worked together to identify potential agricultural sources of water pollution in a local watershed. Students used web based materials to become familiar with sampling and analysis techniques, collected water samples from 16 locations in the watershed for bacterial and chemical analyses, analyzed the samples in the teaching laboratory and then combined the data they generated with GIS land use data to identify potential agricultural impacts to water quality. By collecting water samples, documenting details of the sample sites, analyzing samples in the laboratory, and interpreting the results, students gained a "complete picture" understanding of water quality assessment.