Japanese Gulch Water testing
The title of the project I volunteered for was Japanese Gulch Water Testing. At this project I volunteered four hours. The name of the person that organized the event was Kacie, and her email is kacie.mccarty@email.edcc.edu. I am pretty sure ECC sponsored this event, as the event is on the EdCC Center for Service Learning calendar. The goals of this event were to find the E. coli level, the PH, the alkalinity, and the hardness of a stream running through Japanese Gulch. My duties at this project were to rinse and fill up bottles with stream water, place proper amounts of chemical drops into different solutions, quickly twist on caps, and share what I thought were correct measurements of liquids. I was assigned to be the head of finding the hardness of the stream water, where I read specific directions to others, and recorded some information on paper.
This experience affected me by helping me understand that there are many things within water to measure, and that each measurement can be attributed to the current states of species. For example, by measuring PH of water, we can better explain the activity and health of salmon. This project taught me that people in society can participate in a particular type of science for the first time, with no specialized training, and do well at it, as shown by the group of people I did water testing with. This project has helped me realize that science provides evidence to society that may drive society to avoid particular things, and/or do certain things. For example; if science figures out that a particular body of water has high E. coli levels, society may take this information and be driven to avoid swimming in this body of water (avoid getting sick from the E. coli), and be driven to use techniques that decrease E. coli levels of the particular body of water. Evidence from science may be the only thing that helps drive people to take action on certain issues, and to take them seriously. I believe that my service done for this project will help currently paint a small picture, and in the long-term, paint a large picture as to what we have to do to protect salmon in the Pacific Northwest. In Marine biology class, I learned that in order to understand organisms, we should not only study organisms but the environment they live in; as shown while water testing where we measured abiotic parts of the environment such as water hardness, acidity, and alkalinity. While doing the water testing project, each person would revise the measurements recorded; doing peer review is something Marine Biology class taught me to do. This project could affect human biology by giving us an understanding of how various water qualities affect humans directly, and how various water qualities affect the environment, which then affects humans. This project could lead to increased health and population of salmon species, which can affect the health of those in the Pacific Northwest that eat salmon. Marine biology is interdisciplinary in how it consists of other types of sciences, such as oceanology and ecology.
Some questions that were brought up to me from my service learning project were; Are our collections going to be sent to a lab to be observed? How often does Kacie test water at Japanese Gulch? How do our solutions change color and/or lose color after we add chemicals to them? What journey does the water in Japanese Gulch make after running through Japanese Gulch?
This experience affected me by helping me understand that there are many things within water to measure, and that each measurement can be attributed to the current states of species. For example, by measuring PH of water, we can better explain the activity and health of salmon. This project taught me that people in society can participate in a particular type of science for the first time, with no specialized training, and do well at it, as shown by the group of people I did water testing with. This project has helped me realize that science provides evidence to society that may drive society to avoid particular things, and/or do certain things. For example; if science figures out that a particular body of water has high E. coli levels, society may take this information and be driven to avoid swimming in this body of water (avoid getting sick from the E. coli), and be driven to use techniques that decrease E. coli levels of the particular body of water. Evidence from science may be the only thing that helps drive people to take action on certain issues, and to take them seriously. I believe that my service done for this project will help currently paint a small picture, and in the long-term, paint a large picture as to what we have to do to protect salmon in the Pacific Northwest. In Marine biology class, I learned that in order to understand organisms, we should not only study organisms but the environment they live in; as shown while water testing where we measured abiotic parts of the environment such as water hardness, acidity, and alkalinity. While doing the water testing project, each person would revise the measurements recorded; doing peer review is something Marine Biology class taught me to do. This project could affect human biology by giving us an understanding of how various water qualities affect humans directly, and how various water qualities affect the environment, which then affects humans. This project could lead to increased health and population of salmon species, which can affect the health of those in the Pacific Northwest that eat salmon. Marine biology is interdisciplinary in how it consists of other types of sciences, such as oceanology and ecology.
Some questions that were brought up to me from my service learning project were; Are our collections going to be sent to a lab to be observed? How often does Kacie test water at Japanese Gulch? How do our solutions change color and/or lose color after we add chemicals to them? What journey does the water in Japanese Gulch make after running through Japanese Gulch?
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