This web page is here to show you the 1997-98 Honors Chemistry Class' experience at the Cuyahoga River.  It was lots of fun and a good learning experience.
 

• We did much preparation for this project.
  • We had two excellent speakers come in.  Jan Rybka, a member of the Cuyahoga RAP (Remedial Action Plan), spoke to us about water quality, why pollution is a problem and what we can do to prevent it.  Mr. Erwin Odeal also took the time to talk to us.  He is the Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.  He gave a slide presentation on the process of purifying dirty (sewage or untreated) water and how used water gets from your house or storm drain to a water treatment plant.  But of course if it was that easy there would be no problems.  Industrial discharge, which is more difficult to clean, is highly regulated. Non-point source pollutions are coming into focus. Fortunately for us, the water is cleaned and it flows freely into our sinks.  Both speakers were very good and interesting.
  • We also wrote summaries on articles given to us by Mrs. lewis.  Many of the articles were from area newspapers and RAP publications.  Their purposes were to familiarize us with real life water quality issues and vocabulary.
  • We did the water quality tests on Baker Creek so when we went to the Cuyahoga we weren't rookies at this water quality stuff.
• The day at the Cuyahoga
  • We went on this adventure on May 11, 1998.  It was a heavily overcast day and was about 60°F.  When we got to Lock 29 we were greeted by Park Ranger Pam Barns and Rob Ahearn.  Both were very nice and informative.  The pictures we have on this page are thanks to Rob, because he formatted the disks for the digital camera.  He went out of his way to do this and I am thanking him now.
  • Pam and Rob took us on a nature tour of the area around Lock 29 and we even got to go in the water to look for macro-invertebrates.  Seeing what macro-invertebrates are in the water can give you an idea of the water quality.  This was fun.
  • Then we ate lunch.
  • After lunch we did our water quality tests (Dissolved Oxygen, Fecal Coliform, pH, BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), Temperature Change, Phosphates, Nitrates, Turbidity, and Total Solids).
  • Mrs. Joanna Pusti's Photography 1 class was also at the river with us.  Their assignment was to take pictures with patterns and symmetry of things in nature.

 
 
Mrs. lewis really likes the idea of making a webpage of our project because many students and teachers all over the world will come across this page and discover the importance of water quality and how much fun it is to study it. 
 

The 1997 Student Page 

The 1998 Cuyahoga River Data 

The 1998 Baker Creek River Data 

Pictures of us at the river 

1998 Home Page 

 Lock Information 

 1998 Student Projects 

See the creators of this page 
 
   E-mail Mrs. lewis for more information, 
or to comment on this page or project.
  E-mail the creator of this page, Adam Pervez 

Email the co-creator of this web-page, Matt Straka