The Mystery of the Contaminated Water – An Engineering Challenge!
Testing a potential contaminant in the lab.Copyright 2022 Mariana Quinn, Rice University RET
Students have a mystery to solve! At a remote research facility, a researcher has become gravely ill. Did someone contaminate their drinking water? Students must become water treatment sleuths to design a protocol to analyze the “contaminated water” and then implement that protocol to identify what was added to the water. Based on this knowledge, students just might be able to identify who poisoned Dr. Clearwater!
Environmental and civil engineers develop new devices and systems for water resource management facilities. These engineered devices and systems ensure that citizens are provided with a continuous supply of clean, uncontaminated water for drinking, living, and recreational purposes. Before engineers treat the water, they need to figure out what they are treating the water for since water can be contaminated with specific bacteria, minerals, nutrients, and chemicals.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- List the multiple types of containments and/or pollutants found in water
- Describe different ways that water can be analyzed for the presence of contaminants and/or pollutants.
- Discuss the importance of every step of their water analysis protocol.
- Think and outline ways to improve testing methodology design.