Preliminary:Water Quality

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Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by Jim_R »

Water Quality is probably going to replace Ecology in the 2012 season.This is the prelimanary thread to keep it somewhat organized
Who's done it, and what does the event focus on?
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by The Eviscerator »

I looked at a couple Water Quality Tests on the tufts website and they look pretty interesting. There is some invertebrate ID, and estuarine ecology. There's also a focus on the invertebrates as bioindicators. All in all, I think it'll be interesting and be a good replacement for Ecology. I'm looking forward to hopefully doing it next year. Of course, I also do Ocean Sciences Bowl, so I have the biased opinion that anything dealing with water is interesting.
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by quizbowl »

The Eviscerator wrote:I looked at a couple Water Quality Tests on the tufts website and they look pretty interesting. There is some invertebrate ID, and estuarine ecology. There's also a focus on the invertebrates as bioindicators. All in all, I think it'll be interesting and be a good replacement for Ecology. I'm looking forward to hopefully doing it next year. Of course, I also do Ocean Sciences Bowl, so I have the biased opinion that anything dealing with water is interesting.
Don't forget the building of a Salinometer. Do we actually have to test it there and find out a concentration given to us?
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by quizbowl »

Sorry for the double post, but I found these old rules
(http://sps.k12.mo.us/pipkin/SODivb/wate ... Qualty.pdf)
and how to build the clay model type of the salinometer (http://sps.k12.mo.us/pipkin/SODivb/wate ... ometer.pdf)
2010: 5th in NYS
2011: 4th in NYS
2012: 3rd in NYS
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by gneissisnice »

I've done it before, though it was only once at Invitationals. Still one of my favorite events ever though.

A major part is being able to ID insect larvae. These are indicator species, and they can tell you how clean or polluted a body of water is by their presence or absence; for example, dragonflies can only survive in very clean water, while blood midges can survive in basically anything. The list isn't that big.

Also know the invasive species, such as purple loosestrife (plant) and the zebra mussel, and know what an invasive species is and what effects they can have on the native population.

Know the different nutrients and how useful they are, and how to test for them (if you have to test, they should provide a chemical test for you, just follow the directions and match the color to the one on the box). These nutrients include nitrates, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand (not quite a nutrient, but it's sort of related to DO, or dissolved oxygen), and "water hardness" (calcium and magnesium). There's probably a bit more. Also, tests for coliform bacteria; present of that is bad, it means that there's fecal matter.

There's also a part about water remediation; know how water passes through waste treatment plants and the different stages of remediation.

The salinometer is a minor part, and it shouldn't be too difficult to build.

That's about all I remember, hope this helps. I'll see if I can dig up any of the practice events I did way back when.
2009 events:
Fossils: 1st @ reg. 3rd @ states (stupid dinosaurs...) 5th @ nats.
Dynamic: 1st @ reg. 19thish @ states, 18th @ nats
Herpetology (NOT the study of herpes): NA
Enviro Chem: 39th @ states =(
Cell Bio: 9th @ reg. 18th @ nats
Remote: 6th @ states 3rd @ Nats
Ecology: 5th @ Nats
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by quizbowl »

gneissisnice wrote:I've done it before, though it was only once at Invitationals. Still one of my favorite events ever though.

A major part is being able to ID insect larvae. These are indicator species, and they can tell you how clean or polluted a body of water is by their presence or absence; for example, dragonflies can only survive in very clean water, while blood midges can survive in basically anything. The list isn't that big.

Also know the invasive species, such as purple loosestrife (plant) and the zebra mussel, and know what an invasive species is and what effects they can have on the native population.

Know the different nutrients and how useful they are, and how to test for them (if you have to test, they should provide a chemical test for you, just follow the directions and match the color to the one on the box). These nutrients include nitrates, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand (not quite a nutrient, but it's sort of related to DO, or dissolved oxygen), and "water hardness" (calcium and magnesium). There's probably a bit more. Also, tests for coliform bacteria; present of that is bad, it means that there's fecal matter.

There's also a part about water remediation; know how water passes through waste treatment plants and the different stages of remediation.

The salinometer is a minor part, and it shouldn't be too difficult to build.

That's about all I remember, hope this helps. I'll see if I can dig up any of the practice events I did way back when.
So this is basically AP Environmental Science + looking at insects and invasive species? Cool! In my opinion, this event sounds kick-butterfly.
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by paleonaps »

You know, I did this in eighth grade, in my earth science class, and I liked it. I'm actually pretty excited for this.
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by JSGandora »

Is ID guaranteed to be involved in the rules?
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by The Eviscerator »

JSGandora wrote:Is ID guaranteed to be involved in the rules?
I'm not sure as I haven't seen any rules sheets for this event next year, but if it's the same as it was before (looking back at old tests on the tufts website), then yes.
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Re: Preliminary:Water Quality

Post by quizbowl »

The Eviscerator wrote:
JSGandora wrote:Is ID guaranteed to be involved in the rules?
I'm not sure as I haven't seen any rules sheets for this event next year, but if it's the same as it was before (looking back at old tests on the tufts website), then yes.
The ID will be limited to macroinvertebrates and invasive species, if I remember correctly.
Question: Not sure if anyone remembers, but when this was run as an event, was the salinometer used like awesome aquifer where you just explain it, or do they give you an unknown liquid and ask for the concentration?
2010: 5th in NYS
2011: 4th in NYS
2012: 3rd in NYS
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