Lab 1
Faculty Notes
Turning Brownfields Green
Mathematics
for
Environmental Technology
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Prof Kendall Jacobs AMATYC – Writing Team Members Casper College Casper, Wyoming |
Prof Pete Wildman AMATYC – Writing Team Members Casper College Casper, Wyoming |
Project Grant Team | |
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John S. Pazdar Capital Community College Hartford, Connecticut |
Patricia L. Hirschy Asnuntuck Community College Enfield, Connecticut |
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Peter A. Wursthorn Capital Community College Hartford, Connecticut |
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Karen B. Gaines St Louis Community College – Meremac St Louis, Missouri |
The purpose of the faculty notes is to help you assist your students in the process of discovery as they work on the laboratory. In order to be successful, you will need to recognize that this is not a traditional assignment. The following quote from the AMATYC Crossroads document summarizes the goal of this lab:
"Mathematics must be taught as a laboratory discipline. Effective mathematics instruction should involve active student participation. In-depth projects employing genuine data should be used to promote student learning through guided hands-on investigations."
This lab is most effective if it is student driven. Your role as the instructor is to be a guide or mentor. Your students will work most effectively on the lab if you can keep them motivated by asking appropriate questions and giving valuable suggestions. You will also need to keep their "feet to the fire" – in a lab like this, procrastination can mean disaster. When the students finish, they should be experts on the brownfields site that they studied. Along the way, they will learn much about groundwater, hydrology, the environment, and the application of mathematics in these fields.
Lab ManagementThe Turning Brownfields Green lab is very open-ended. Results will depend upon the particular brownfields site that the students select to investigate and their choice of mathematical techniques to model the groundwater. It is possible that your students are not familiar or comfortable with working on such an open-ended problem. Because of this, we have provided some suggestions to help your students as they tackle the investigation of this problem. Because of the many facets of this problem, you may wish to encourage your students to approach the problem in the following manner
Under the subheadings below, you will find specific information and resources that may help guide your students to a successful completion of the lab.
Students will need to begin by conducting some bibliotechnology research on brownfields. The EPA site http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/index.html would be a good starting place. You may want to motivate your students with a few brownfields success stories:
For details on these success stories and others check out these sites:
Another issue that might be interesting for your students to investigate is the issue of "non-preventable pollution". You might ask students to consider if human activity will always lead to some form of environmental impact no matter how careful we are to prevent it. For example, will oil spills be a part of the process of refining oil regardless of safeguards? Over a long period of time, these spills could contribute to a major problem.
It is important that students identify a brownfields site to work on early in the lab. Ideally, you should look for a local brownfields site that is not overly complex. Students should also be encouraged to seek out local experts who might be able to help them obtain and interpret data. The EPA site http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/index.html may help your students identify these places. The web site lists many pilot projects as well as regional contact information that you may find helpful. You might also encourage your students to contact local government officials for assistance. Having a local contact person (expert) will make the problem much more interesting and accessible. The local contact person can be especially helpful in providing the history of the brownfields site.
It might be helpful to set up a timeline with your students or student teams. As you set up the timeline, you can help the students set goals and suggest possible approaches. A sample timeline can be found at the end of the faculty notes.
The web site resources given in the lab concerning groundwater will give students an excellent introduction. Many misconceptions exist concerning groundwater in the general public. Students may think that groundwater is like an underground river or alternatively that it is just an underground lake and does not move. Students will encounter a number of new terms and ideas, and it is important for them to keep a glossary. Students may also have some difficulty understanding how groundwater works. To help students understand the different geologic processes in groundwater, you might ask them to complete one of the following activities:
Once students have the data, you should help them create a conceptual model of the groundwater at their brownfields site. The objective here is to develop a general understanding of the groundwater characteristics. Students may find drawing maps and making physical models helpful in this process.
Students may have difficulty creating a mathematical model – especially if the brownfields site is complex. It is important that students limit their consideration to one or two contaminants and a few well sites. You might also encourage students to make some assumptions about the problem. Making and recognizing assumptions is an essential part of building a mathematical model and making a hypothesis. Some assumptions might include: The soil at the brownfields site is homogeneous, hydrologic conductivity is constant, diffusion does not play a significant role, the contaminant is not undergoing biodegradation, recharge is constant, the contaminant is not reacting with the aquifer, the contaminant plume is growing, and so forth. Recognizing assumptions will help students build their model. For example, if students recognize that hydrologic conductivity is not homogenous, they would consider the use of a piecewise model.
Direct the students toward some of the mathematical tools suggested in the problem. Here are several mathematics resources you may find helpful:
To help students practice some of the mathematical techniques used in modeling groundwater, you might have them investigate the mini-project data given below. They could also complete the "Arsenic and Old Waste" activity listed above.
Mini-ProjectHere's a small data set from the Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York. You might challenge your students to use various mathematical techniques such as regression or simulation to describe the concentration level of DCE (dichloroethene) at various places on the site.
| Point | Distance from source (ft) | Direction from source | Date | Total DCE (_g/L) |
| A | 0 | S45°E | 8/95 | 51412 |
| 5/96 | 12626 | |||
| B | 970 | S45°E | 8/95 | 14968 |
| 5/96 | 9376 | |||
| C | 1240 | S45°E | 8/95 | 10035 |
| 5/96 | 10326 | |||
| D | 2050 | S45°E | 8/95 | not analyzed |
| 5/96 | 1423 | |||
| E | 2560 | S45°E | 8/95 | 2218 |
| 5/96 | 1051 | |||
| F | 3103 | S25°E | 8/95 | 226 |
| 5/96 | 177 |
The questions here are "How well does the model fit the data?" and "Is the model appropriate?" You might encourage students to test their models against data that was not used to construct the model. Is the model a good predictor? A functional model such as a regression model could be evaluated using correlation coefficients and residual analysis. Running simulations is the best method to test a probabilistic model. This can be done by hand or with technology. You might suggest that the students develop several models and tackle the question, "Which model is better?" You could also encourage the students to improve the model by adding additional factors/data.
The third step of the scientific method involves developing a hypothesis about the real-world situation under consideration. In this context, the mathematical model is the hypothesis. The model constitutes a proposal to describe and explain the technology problem. It is important that your students make this connection between the model and the scientific method.
Once students are satisfied with their model of groundwater flow, you will want to encourage them to investigate methods of groundwater cleanup. You might ask your students some of the following questions: Does the brownfields site need to be cleaned up? What are the implications of not cleaning the brownfields site? Could the brownfields site be safely used without clean up? What are some of the remediation options? What would be the implications of the various options? Would it be possible or practical to excavate the entire brownfields site? To what level should the brownfields site be cleaned up? What economic, health, political and social implications need to be considered?
Encourage students to organize their materials as they solve the problem rather than waiting to work on the model portfolio after they have created a mathematical model. This will make the development of the model portfolio a much more accurate and less onerous task. You may wish to have your students present their results to local business people and political representatives who will be decision-makers regarding the process of cleaning up the brownfields site. Such a presentation could serve as the thesis defense.
Important Points to Remember|
Instructor: ________________________ |
Student(s): ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ |
Date 1: Identify local brownfields. If possible, find a local expert.
Date 2: Develop a glossary of terms/bibliotechnology research.
Date 3: Conduct a laboratory activity to investigate groundwater behavior.
Date 4: Meet with the instructor to review progress.
Date 5: Analyze the data from the Plattsburgh Air Force Base.
Date 6: Meet with the instructor to review progress.
Date 7: Chose a local brownfields site and develop a conceptual model.
Date 8: Explore different mathematical models.
Date 9: Meet with the instructor to review progress.
Date 10: Explore remediation options.
Date 11: Meet with the instructor to review progress.
Date 12: Submit final model portfolio and give thesis defense.
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