Juniors Study Water Quality After Flint Water Crisis
With headlines of lead poisoning the water in Flint, Michigan, have you ever wondered if your water might be dangerous? Thanks to the juniors at DRSS, we may just be able to answer that question for you. Currently, the 11th graders of The Dayton Regional STEM School are at the start of a very interesting group project involving Technical Reading & Writing and Chemistry that will be exploring the pressing issue of water safety. Students will be investigating what types of things are in their water, and they will try and figure out an answer to an extremely important question; is our water really safe?
The water in Flint, Michigan is extremely toxic and causing extreme health issues because of the dangerously high levels of lead that it contains. Lead is an extremely dangerous substance that, when exposed to it, can cause behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems, anemia, increased blood pressure and incidence of hypertension, as well as decreased kidney functions. (United States Environmental Protection Agency , 2016) Children are even more susceptible to these dangerous side-affects. When lead enters into the body system, it gets absorbed into the bones of the person exposed to it. Children are more likely to absorb lead because their bodies are constantly growing, and therefore need more calcium for their bones. When lead enters the body system, it is recognized by the body as calcium, and therefore is absorbed. Adults do not have this risk, as they are not growing and their bodies are not needing to absorb the same amount of calcium as children. That’s what makes the issue in Flint so concerning. There is a large amount of children that are going to be affected for the rest of their lives because of the neglect that went into keeping their water clean.
That is partly why juniors at DRSS are studying their own drinking water. They are applying their Chemistry knowledge, and their Technical Reading & Writing Skills to research their drinking water, and then write a research paper regarding it. Depending on the quality of the paper they write, students will have the opportunity to submit their articles to scientific papers and possibly get published. This is an amazing opportunity for our juniors for multiple reasons. Firstly, we’ll be able to test the waters from the different areas that our juniors live, and make sure that it is actually safe for us to drink. Secondly, a lot of the juniors are looking at pursuing a career in Science. A big part of being a Scientist is publishing your findings in a scientific journal, and it is very impressive to colleges if you’ve already accomplished this goal.
To aid in their research, the juniors recently got the opportunity to visit the Dayton water plant, and learn about the processes used to sanitize the water in the Dayton area. They toured the facility, and got to see how the water filters are cleaned, how the water is stored, and they got to see the room where all of the chemicals for the water are kept. Each specific process was explained in detail, and students were able to ask questions regarding water safety in the area. This was a really unique experience, and it allowed students to gain more information on water treatment that will help them with their papers.
The juniors will begin testing their water in the next few weeks, and they will begin writing their scientific papers shortly. Best of luck to them with their research!
