Students Involved In Water Quality Research
A-B Tech Biology and Chemistry students are involved in some wet hands-on research, something not always available at a community college. A Together We Read program featuring Wilma Dykeman's book "The French Broad" triggered the initial water sampling project in 2002. Dr. Tom Dechant, Dean of Arts and Sciences, suggested continuing it as an ongoing student-based research project.
"We got together and decided it would be nice to have a class project to create a database on the French Broad since it is our major river in the area," Dechant said. "Very little work has been done on it." Dechant also teaches the Regional Natural History class.
Students have been collecting samples from the French Broad and generating a database on the water quality of the river. "We are trying to expose students to data collection and analysis more typical of four-year universities," said Laurel Young, Biology Instructor teaching the lab for Regional Natural History.
Young takes students on a six-hour trip to collect data from four sites along the French Broad River. Starting with a site near the confluence of the North and West forks at the head of the French Broad, the students head downstream stopping in Brevard at Crab Creek Bridge, Glenn Bridge Recreation Park in Asheville and then a Buncombe County recreation park in Alexander. "Students collect, interpret and add information to the database, and then track trends in the river," Dechant said.
Field data collected includes temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and flow rates. Site characteristics such as types of rocks and the amount of tree coverage are also noted. Kick net sampling yields a collection of insect larva and other macroinvertebrates.
These organisms function as indicator species of water quality. Some organisms can only live in clean water, while others can tolerate pollution. Stream residents are more reliable indicators of water quality than are measurements taken at a specified place and time.
Once the field work has been done, water samples are bottled and taken back to A-B Tech for further analyses. The Biology Department tests for coliform bacteria (E. coli) and identifies the macroinvertebrates collected. Chemistry students use an automated data acquisition system called Pasco to take most of the numerical measurements to get information on water hardness, nitrates and total suspended solids. Chemistry Instructor Wes Adams devotes a three-hour lab period for the chemical analysis. Adams said they also used the UV-Vis spectrometer to measure the dissolved organic carbon.
This year's Together We Read selection was Horace Kephart's "Southern Highlander."
Since the setting was the early 20th century, the Natural History students were challenged with finding old water quality data for the French Broad. A 1954 data set was received from RiverLink, a nonprofit organization devoted to the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River. This allowed students to make comparisons of the river then and now.
Not only do the students benefit from the academic experience, but also they become more informed citizens, conscious of the need to maintain the integrity of the region's water resources.
A PowerPoint summary of the data collected is available for viewing at http://www.abtech.edu/as/french/
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Technology CIP
Hank Jackson, Chair of Mechanical Engineering Technology, recently ended an 18-month stint as director of a Curriculum Improvement Project (CIP) for the North Carolina Community College System.
Jackson led the CIP from January 2003 to June 2004 conducting a series of meetings to discuss the curriculum for Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Technology.
"Part of the reason I did this," Jackson said, "was that I saw it (the statewide program) was anchored in 1970s mentality. The marketplace needs more than that."
The curriculum was too rigid for the rapidly changing technology. "At best, we may get curriculum changes every 10 years. Look at computer technology and look how much it has changed in 10 years," he said.
Jackson and other participants agreed mechanical and manufacturing engineering technology was too huge a field to rigidly dictate all the things you need to learn and no more.
"When employers come in and say what they need, community colleges need to be able to change," he said. If a company wants to build a manufacturing plant here in the region, they want to know if the area workforce is qualified.
"With the new Mechanical Engineering Technology curriculum program, community colleges will be able to change program needs at will, without having to wait perhaps as long as two years for a change to be approved," Jackson said.
Changes coming from the CIP include recommendations for revising, reassigning or eliminating more than 70 courses as well as a flexible and comprehensive Curriculum Standard incorporating Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and two related curriculum concentrations.
With the new Curriculum Standard, a program of study can be customized for students who want to transfer to a four-year college such as Western Carolina University or the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
The CIP group is pushing for early implementation to have the new curriculum in place by the Spring Semester 2005 rather than waiting for the traditional Fall Semester start.
The CIP process is normally a two-year effort. Due to budget issues, the project was started late and the CIP representatives had only 18 months to complete the recommendations.
The CIP takes a given program and gathers together all the community colleges that offer the program. For this CIP, a Curriculum Review Group was formed to discuss the courses to decide whether they are obsolete, revision is needed or new courses are needed.
The second element of the process was Professional Development training. An instructor may not be up to date on technology, Jackson said. There was a need to have professional development included in the CIP. Technology used for teaching includes the use of the Smart Board and online training.
"A CIP is good because you get to know others in the same boat, network, share ideas in a less structured environment," Jackson said. Representatives from 21 community colleges that offer Mechanical Engineering participated on a regular basis throughout the 18-month project.
Compensatory Education Thanksgiving
Ken O'Connor, former Coordinator of Compensatory Education, center, talks with students in the Compensatory Education Program during the annual Thanksgiving dinner in the Elm building.
Spreading Goodwill
President K. Ray Bailey was the guest speaker at the Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina 2004 Annual Awards Banquet. President Bailey is shown with Billy Whitaker, the organization's president. President Bailey received a note of gratitude from Whitaker for his inspiring address. "Most of all, I want to thank you for your continued support of and dedication to Goodwill's mission," Whitaker wrote.