Water Quality B/C

[trishythesillyfishy]

@ caseyotis will the test include coliform bacteria, turbidity, etc or have those also changed

[HeartCaro]

it'll still include coliform etc

[caseyotis]

Thank you cupcakegirl!

I am relatively new to science olympiad and water quality, and I am being paired with a very experienced partner for my next event- What are the things I should study? (As in sources (books, websites)) I've taken AP environmental last year, if that helps at all. I don't want to be totally leeching off of her experience on the event.

Alright - there's really no asking us what you should study. It's best if you talk with your partner about dividing up the work. Look at the rules sheet, which has all of things you'll need to go. Go on soinc.org and find Water Quality - look at the Training Handout/PowerPoint and the Coach/Coordinator's Handout. That and the wiki will tell you what you need to know.

Can someone tell me a bit more on coliform bacteria

Fecal coliform is a bacteria that appears in our large intestine/colon - obviously, it is found in our feces as well, and the feces of most (all?) mammals.
It is an important indicator of the amount of fecal matter present in water, which is important because it can tell us about how pathogenic and dangerous the water could be and how poor the septic systems are.
The tests should still include the categories of the WQI, but you will not be tested on the WQI itself. This is because that applies to freshwater, while we are studying marine and estuarine water.

Hello, I am new to Science Olympiad, and I'm really confused since I haven't asked my teacher for help,
what do I need to study for division B/C specifically? IN other words, what exactly do I need to know for the competitions?

Can someone also please explain the sulfur cycle to me?

Your profile says that you are in Division B, so I am assuming that you are.
The test will be a bit simpler in Div. B than in C, but you will still need to know all of things that are detailed in the rules manual.

Hopefully this helps. http://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/File:Scycle.gif I'm bad with cycles.

[alm5]

Are they asking for ecology, life cycle, and feeding habits as well?

[caseyotis]

Are they asking for ecology, life cycle, and feeding habits as well?

For the organisms, yes.

[emescferrall]

My coach told me this morning that I will be competing Water Quality for the first time on Saturday. My partner has done it before, but she didn't have any notes. Please help!!! Has the Wiki been updated yet???

[caseyotis]

My coach told me this morning that I will be competing Water Quality for the first time on Saturday. My partner has done it before, but she didn't have any notes. Please help!!! Has the Wiki been updated yet???

The wiki hasn't been updated... The best thing for you to do is look at the Training Handout and PowerPoint, which can be found at soinc.org. There are a lot of useful notes there.

[emescferrall]

Thank you!!

[colorado mtn science]

I noticed that I was making a mistake calibrating my salinometer, and I'm thinking this might be a common mistake. When mixing saline solutions I would mess up my total. For example, if I wanted 4% salinity, I would mix 400 g of distilled water with 16 g of salt, because 16 is 4% of 400. However, my total solute to solution ratio would be 16 g of salt over 416 total grams of saltwater solution, and 16 is not 4% of 416. Basically, my results were thrown off because I didn't take into account the total amount of solution. What I should have done to get 400 g of 4% salt water was to mix 16 grams of salt with 384 grams of water. Has anyone else made this mistake?

[rtunnel97]

colorado mtn science, my partner and i, when we first started water quality two years ago, luckily had a chemistry teacher show us this common error but i could see how this could happen though, hopefully everyone is having a grand ol time calibrating those salinometers right now hahahaha