Meet Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor of civil and environmental engineers and water-quality expert who, together with his students, have helped communities from Washington, D.C., to Flint, Mich., document lead contamination in their tap water – and then hold officials accountable.

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Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on Class Act: The Water Guy

Tags: advocacy, ASEE Prism, civil and environmental engineering, Environmental science, Flint lead crisis, Marc Edwards, social justice, Virginia Tech, water quality

Middle school students explore how fertilizers and other solids affect water quality by building and using sensors to measure the electrical conductivity of water samples. They then create data tables and investigate possible sources of pollutants using digital visualization tools.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Measuring Water Quality to Assess Human Impact

Tags: arduino, Class Activities, data analysis, electrical circuits, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Excel, Grades 6-8, HackingSTEM Microsoft, hydrology, Lesson Plan, Pollution, sensors, water quality

Sensors are in everything from smart phones to corn fields. They also can be a powerful and engaging tool to teach STEM. SENSE IT, a free, research-based curriculum, involves students in hands-on learning about their local environment by constructing, deploying, and interpreting data from a network of water-quality sensors.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans, Web Resources | Comments Off on Sense It!

Tags: circuits, Curriculum, data analysis, Environmental Engineering, Environmental science, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, integrated STEM, Internet Resources, iSTEM, Lesson Plan, Liesl Hotaling, SENSE IT, sensors, Teacher Resources, water quality, Web Resources