Some students are taking a creative approach to collecting water samples from Saginaw Bay. Listen up:
The Kawkawlin River, which empties into Saginaw Bay, has been polluted by excess sediment, nutrients, and even E. Coli from failing septic systems and animal agriculture.
Director of SVSU’s Saginaw Bay Environmental Science Institute David Karpovich on the river with student researchers (via SVSU Communications)
David Karpovich of Saginaw Valley State University saw an opportunity for his students to help—and learn—by conducting research, such as analyzing water samples. To collect data even when the river is frozen, one group of budding engineers built a drone that can drill holes in ice and collect water.
How can a drone be meaningful to water research? Karpovich breaks it down: “So I can sample in thick ice, I can sample on open water—but I can’t sample on thin ice. With this drone I can.”
Karpovich says the students’ work as a whole is to create a baseline, so that future efforts to clean up this Michigan river can be measured.
Talk about a class act for water science.
Get schooled:
- Learn more about the Kawkawlin River, from the KR Watershed Association
- Get to know SVSU’s Saginaw Bay Environmental Science Institute
The fine print:
- This segment was produced in partnership with Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future
