Final Service Post!

Our service all began at the start of the Spring 2019 semester here at Penn State Berks. When we  started class we had all of these great thoughts about how we would go about helping bring change to our environment, and combat the ever growing threat against it. Although these were all great thoughts, we couldn’t begin to think about actually putting them into action. That all changed when we took Environmental Science with Dr. Kazempour. She instilled in all of us what it means to go about making change in our communities by teaching us the fundamental skills of environmental science and the tools an individual needs to go about doing it. From working together as a team to following the steps of the scientific process, we learned so much about how to effectively spread awareness to our local communities and peers. Our group, the Drip gang, had a wonderful time doing our research on groundwater pollution, and learning about the proper ways to go about testing it. We began our project by receiving water quality testing from Berks Nature in Reading PA. This organization does local water testing and has a full testing facility, so we were getting the best training possible to conduct our own tests. We learned how to test PH, Dissolved Oxygen, Phosphorous, Conductivity and Nitrate. Each of these tests came with a specific set of directions and different materials used to complete each test. We were all astonished at just how much went into testing water quality that we were not aware of before. For our own testing once we began to do our service work we decided to collect data at two important bodies of water near the city of Reading which included Blue Marsh Lake and Lake Ontelaunee. At Blue Marsh we tested the water upstream and downstream to get clear readings to see the difference in water quality just based on location in one body of water. From the data we collected we found that the water downstream was more acidic and a lot more polluted than the upstream test. We concluded that the water upstream was cleaner due to the fact that it is moving faster and it barely stays still like the water further downstream. At our second test at Lake Ontelaunee we found that the water was very stable and had a very balanced PH, and conductivity, we believe that the data collected here for our tests were cleaner because this lake is actually a registered watershed that is maintained and contains little to no pollution. All of this information was inputted into the GLOBE database which is an app that collects local water tests and readings for other organizations and some large companies to use or view. This information will be sent to NASA to show that our water requires much needed improvement and care. Collecting data was just one part of our service however. Giving our final presentation to the public inside the Gaige Lobby at Penn State Berks gave us an opportunity to share our work with others, and spread awareness on the issue. Because of our extensive research and hands on quality testing we believe that we got the message out very strongly to those who interacted with us and viewed our poster. As a combined effort with all of the other service groups, our class was able to achieve spreading awareness of the environment within our community, by showing that with  thorough service and teamwork, great changes can happen!. Overall this project went very well for us as a team, we all enjoyed working together and making new friendships that enabled us to complete this project and spread awareness about issues that tend to be overlooked in our society today.