Monitoring water quality through citizen science while teaching STEM undergraduate courses during a global pandemic

Implementing Service-Focused Activities Focused on Water Quality While Teaching a Freshmen Undergraduate Course During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…These analytes were selected based on the results of a previous study conducted by the research team. 18 Test strips are safe, inexpensive, easy to use, and disposable. Results were obtained by placing the test strips for one second in the sampling bottles, waiting for 30 s, and by comparing the different pads to the color chart provided.…”

“…Detailed information regarding the implemented assessments can be found elsewhere. 18 Briefly, the pre-activity assessment was implemented to assess the background knowledge of the students on water quality, water pollution, analytical instrumentation, their preferred learning method (e.g., step-by-step written guidelines vs video tutorials vs combined approach) and their expectations for the class. The post-activity assessment in addition to assessing the knowledge gained about water quality, water pollution, and analytical instrumentation, was used to identify the most challenging test strips, to evaluate the students' satisfaction in conducting the water quality service-focused activity, and their willingness to implement hands-on activities in other engineering courses.…”

“…For example, Oxley and Turner successfully implemented a field-based environmental chemistry course at St. Mary's University to engage chemistry and environmental science students to develop critical thinking skills that allowed the students to evaluate the link between chemistry and environmental conditions. 14 A similar approach has been implemented in classes (1) that explore the chemistry and geology of alkaline surface lake waters, 15 the quality of well water 16 as well as drinking water 17,18 or (2) that increase awareness of materials and environment 19 especially water quality. 19,20 The main goal of this study was to implement an engaging, teamwork building, service-focused Environmental Engineering activity in a freshmen Civil Engineering course (C E 101, Introduction to Civil Engineering) where students performed a water quality monitoring campaign using two commercially available low-cost test strips (2:1 and 5:1) while returning to campus during a pandemic event.…”

Water Hardness in the Eye of the Beholder: Exploring Links between Central Softening, Customer Perception and Behavior, and Citizen Science

“…However, the involvement of non-scientists in the context of drinking water remains, at present, relatively scarce. Examples of efforts in this field include several studies on lead concentrations in drinking water (Jakositz et al 2020;Redmont et al 2020), water hardness, and other chemical water quality parameters (Brouwer and Hessels 2019;Babich et al 2021;D'Alessio et al 2021;Odetola et al 2021), as well as studies initiated in the context of the Flint water crisis (e.g., Roy and Edwards 2019) and a study on the microbiological stability of drinking water .…”

Adaptations to a Secondary School-Based Citizen Science Project to Engage Students in Monitoring Well Water for Arsenic during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Motivation is one of several identified success factors for citizen science projects in water quality monitoring (San Llorente Capdevila et al, 2020). Another citizen science project involving undergraduate students in testing drinking water during the pandemic, found the quality of student-collected data can meet quality control standards, even when students are from different academic backgrounds and primarily working in remote environments (D'Alessio et al, 2021).…”