Spring SAVY 2019, Day 4 – The Water-Energy Nexus (5th/6th)
February 18, 2019
Water-Energy Nexus
Saturday’s class was great!
- We began by completing the analysis and discussion of our water filtration experiments from last week. In that experiment, we designed and tested the water treatment capacity of five different filtration media (activated carbon, cotton balls, coffee filters, macaroni, and aquarium gravel.
- Then, we reviewed that concepts from the water filtration lesson (pH, conductivity, turbidity, porosity, size-exclusion).
- Then we began lesson 3 (Oil-Water Separation) by discussing the various processes which might result in oily water that needs to be separated (fracking, oil spills, wastewater from airstrips and parking lots).
- Then we watched a short video describing the events of the learned about the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and answered several comprehension questions throughout. This helped to set up the motivation behind the oil spill clean-up experiment.
- Then we conducted our oil spill clean-up experiment in which we evaluated the efficacy of three different clean-up strategies (skimming with absorbent booms, vacuuming the oily water with pipettes, and using dish soap as a chemical dispersant).
- Then we closed out the day with a discussion and analysis of the results from the oil spill clean-up activity.
- We ended our day by writing journal entry summaries of the day for reflection and so we have something to come back to for Open House. We also played a game of “engineering jeopardy” before the class was dismissed.
See you all next Saturday!
-Kofi
