Testing Water Cleanliness Using Probes

There are 2100+ students at our high school, and our enrollment is growing. I teach three different levels of biology: first year, second year and advanced placement. My advanced placement biology course is designed for college-bound students with an interest in science. Many of these students venture to college as biology majors. Once there, they have the opportunity to work with incredible scientific technology. I would like to bring more of this technology into my classroom to further prepare my students and to ease their transition from the high school lab area to the college laboratory. The use of Carolina Biological Supply Company's meter and dissolved oxygen probe in my classroom would be a great start to easing this transition. Together these instruments allow students to quickly measure the amount of dissolved oxygen in a sample of water. The amount of oxygen dissolved in a body of water is extremely important for the aquatic ecosystem. Generally, the more oxygen dissolved in the water the healthier the environment is for living creatures. The advanced placement students will test local ponds, lakes, creeks, and rivers for the amount of oxygen dissolved in each. They will then research each place and they will compare the amount of dissolved oxygen to the known cleanliness of the water. They will continue testing samples from each body of water as the school year progresses to see how changes in weather, temperature, and human interactions can affect the amount of dissolved oxygen. There is a manual test that the students will complete to measure the amount of dissolved oxygen called the Winkler Test. This test is very complex and because of the precise steps the students often get poor results. To achieve a more accurate result the students will then test the water samples with the meter and dissolved oxygen probe from Carolina Biological Supply. The readings from the meter will be used by the students for nearly the entire school year as they research the change in the water cleanliness. To be successful in the college biological laboratory, the students need to have opportunities using equipment like the meter and dissolved oxygen probes. They will be expected to have some experience with this type of technology, and your interest in their laboratory abilities will help prepare the students and ease the transition.