Environmental Chem

[Jim_R]

Table of Contents:

• Enviro Chem Wiki
• What soil testing is for
• What to research
• About digested soil samples
• About plant nutrition
• Chemical formula for ammonium nitrate
• Chemical formula for quartz
• What ashing is
• Why people test digested soil samples
• N-P-K compunds in fertilizer
• What foliar feeding is
• Advantages of synthetic fertilizers
• How irrigation can be damaging to topsoil
• Steps to testing soil with a pH probe
• The day the EPA was founded
• The best way to find organic pesticide in soil

Original Post:

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What do you guys think of environmental chem as an event this year? I did it as a trial event last year, and the rules were too vague. The test, though, was basically ecology, though more on the chemical side then the biological.

[fleet130]

Environmental Chemistry

[gneissisnice]

thanks, I didn't know they had the rules up.The water testing shouldn't be TOO bad.

[Aia]

A partner and I randomly competed in Environmental chem this as a trial event in 2006 at Indiana University.

The event was pretty amusing. We managed to spill the "contaminated water" all over our lab papers and had no idea how the technical equipment worked. However, it seemed like you could have prepared pretty well for the event. A bit of chem, a bit of ecology, and you would have been good to go.

[gneissisnice]

haha i did the trial event at nats too. It was terrible. It took me and my partner the entire time to figure out what the pigeon a colorimeter did and how to read it, so by the time we got all of our data, we didnt have time to write the essay.

[oh joy]

i think it sounds fun...

[tweedlebeetle]

I'm really, really hoping they stick to water testing this year and don't go into the soil tests they did at NYS trials...We just made up some stuff without even trying to test the dirt.

[dickyjones]

According to the trial event rules, division B will be soil testing, while division C is water testing. Hopefully they'll stick to that since I just ordered a book on water chemistry/testing...

Seems like it could be a fun event. I'm a bit lost on where to begin studying for this, though. The rules for these sort of events are never very specific.

[gneissisnice]

Haha we totally screwed up the soil testing. We were like "Hmmm, they want us to test for limestone, so HCl should work. Add water and then HCl.....wait, none of the samples are fizzing. Thats bad. Lets say....sample B fizzed. That works."
Amazingly, we got 5th =)

[LoveRespectPeace]

What's wrong with Soil Testing? It sounds pretty fun. We're always doing water tests in school...