On Friday we went to Sugarland’s water treatment facility and learned a ton about large scale water purification! I’m used to seeing a small scale in my lab, it was so cool to see a giant version. We got to take a tour of all of the components of the plant, as well as sit in a presentation informing us of the parts we cannot see. My favorite part was when we went to the sludge tank where all the organic material was converted into a solid, then pumped out of the system. I have a picture below!

I learned so much about what goes into making the water we drink safe, and I definitely have a greater appreciation for the clean water we have access to. If I can get permission from my principal, I think this would make a great field trip for my students when we get to our surface and groundwater unit. Thank you for the opportunity to take this field trip!

This was my second week in the lab, and I got to know a few more pieces of equipment! The first was the Scanning Electron Microscope, which was INSANELY AWESOME! We were able to put our samples on some SEM slides and view them up to 1 nanometer in length, which made them look completely different than they look to the naked eye. Unfortunately, I did not get an actual picture of our samples, but I did get a picture of Amit loading our samples into their trays!

Next, I spent the day with Tany’s NASA students and got to see the design kitchen where there are all the campus’ 3D printers and spare materials for projects.

Lastly, we all had a drink at Valhalla which is conveniently located under our building!

This week in Dr. Verduzco’s lab, I learned how to flowcoat electrodes using a flowcoating machine. I have attached a picture below!

Once we flow coat the electrodes, we cut them to fit the cathode and anode that we need in the picture below, and set the computer to send voltage through the electrodes in hopes of removing calcium from the water samples.

Dr. Verduzco’s lab is primarily interested in removing calcium from water samples because it can cause scaling and water fouling if left to build up over time. This is particularly important for water treatment plants because if the pipes have too much calcium build up, water will not be able to flow through the pipes as efficiently.