Research is essential to understanding our rapidly changing environment. With that in mind, Environmental Science Instructor, Khaldoun Ahmad, assigned students a project that required them to conduct and present their own research on important environmental issues.
Students taking courses in Environmental Issues and Natural Resource Conservation worked in groups to conduct research on topics that included studying the impact of sodium chloride on our fresh water supply, the affect population has on Co2 and air quality, and geochemical analysis of surface water in Stearns County, among others.
With their research complete, students prepared posters to use in presenting their findings to the local community at a public event.
During the final week of Fall semester, SCTCC hosted an Environmental Science Research Symposium. Members of the community; SCTCC students, staff, and faculty, and those with an interest in the environment attended the event and engaged with students to learn about the research they conducted.
In the past, Ahmad reserved this project for Junior and Senior students in classes he taught at the university level. After reviewing the research SCTCC students conducted in preparation for the symposium, Ahmad exclaimed, “I was astonished at the results. They did a very good job and they got experience on how to run samples and write an interpretation for the future ecosystem and future generations.”
