On a crisp October day at Mirror Lake, senior Michael Madson surmises why dissolved solids in the lake have dropped in the past few months.
He discusses a few hypotheses with Audrey Sawyer, assistant professor of earth sciences. Could it be seasonal? Or manmade: The fact that the renovation of the lake is completed and construction work is no longer stirring up the lake’s sediment? Maybe it’s biological, caused by algae and plants growing in the lake. Or a more complicated possibility: The lake is currently supplied by both city water and groundwater from a limestone aquifer, and the chemistry of the lake water could be equilibrating with the atmosphere.
The installation of a new hydrogeology learning lab in and near the lake gives students like Madson the opportunity to apply classroom learning without leaving campus.
“Professors can say, ‘This is what we’ve been talking about, and it’s right in your backyard,’” says Madson, an earth sciences major.
The new lab consists of monitoring stations in the lake and a groundwater well. Both are equipped with wireless sensors to monitor pressure, water level, temperature, electric conductivity, total dissolved solids and salinity.
Sawyer, who developed and, with several students, installed the lab, says already two general education classes and an upper-level hydrogeology class are using her teaching materials.
“These three courses alone will expose approximately 900 students annually to hands-on skills in hydrogeology,” says Sawyer.
“In the ‘Water Issues’ general education class, we talk about water in the news and use it as a jumping off point to learn about geology,” Sawyer says, noting that the class (ES 2204) has discussed hurricanes, droughts and global groundwater contamination issues such as natural arsenic in Southeast Asia.
Given the many disciplines of study available on campus, Sawyer hopes student projects at the lake also will capture the attention of students outside earth sciences.
“If they walk by and see this kind of science, and it sparks their interest in any kind of science,” she says, “that would be the reaction out of this that would be the end goal.”
Read more and watch a video about the Hydrogeology Lab at Mirror Lake.