Today we had our final summer research event: oral and poster presentations.  The students did a wonderful job presenting their work.  I was very proud of them.  Here's a picture of the students with the poster. Download the poster!

Today we ran another layer set up. This set up was the same set up we did before with 6 inches of lake superior below 3 inches of F65. we were running this setup again because the experimental data did not match up with what the model predicted. looking at the results from todays trials, the layers acted in a similar way to what they did before. For monday, we set up the small cylinder with lake superior sand to run again. the data for the 3 different size cylinders was not quite what we were expecting. we are running this cylinder again to see if the results will be the same. We will feel more confident with the data if the results are the same as before. We also set up the medium cylinder with lake superior sand as well. In the medium cylinder set up, we placed the column in and added sand to the outside of the cylinder only. we will add sand to the column during the trials to see the effects the difference between the inside and outside levels of sand have on the k value. We have had situations where the sand level is higher inside than outside, as well as the sand inside being lower than the outside.

Tomorrow we plan to do some more work on the poster and perhaps start working on the formal presentation we will have to give in a few weeks.

Group Picture

Fake fire alarms at lunch prompted group photo shoot, here's the entire group!

Today we tested the Superior sand in an even larger cylinder than before. We used our method of the falling head test and after three runs, we would remove the column and wait 5 minutes before running more tests. This was done to make sure that the sand had time to settle. We have not analyzed this data yet, but hopefully we will be able to make a comparison of the small, medium, and large cylinders. Tomorrow we will be running a layered set up with the Superior sand on the bottom and F-65 sand on top. We did not obtain the best of data last time with this set up so we are testing again to hopefully see a better set of data this next time.

Menke Observatory Trip

Relaxing, while the rest are still arriving...

Hiking

 Throwing bean bags.....

Dr. Mitchell shows us the telescopes.

Moon taken through telescope. (Saturn was my favorite, but no picture.)

An Update

This weekend we went to a River Bandits game. We all enjoyed the game, even if the Bandits did get beat up pretty bad, as it was Rascal's birthday. Tonight we will be going to a star party where we plan on having a cookout and enjoying the day before observing the stars.

As our time for research is beginning to come to an end, we are focusing more on analyzing results and running tests that will enhance what we have already learned, or will indicate causes of error. In the lab we have been trying to narrow down what setups would be best to run that we believe will provide interesting and useful results based on all the tests we have done up to this point. Today we learned that putting marbles into the sand isn't having a consistent effect, if it is having an effect at all, on our calculated K values. With this knowledge we are turning our focus back to setups with different layers of sand and we are planning to run setups similar to ones we have run before to confirm results. Another important test condition we will be testing, so that future in lab falling head tests can be run more effectively, is that of the effect of the size of the outer glass container. Our models created through MODFLOW show that the size of the system has an effect on the K value that you measure, but we want to determine if this is a true noticeable effect in the lab.

Pictures don't require words....

River Bandits Baseball Game

3 layers of sand...

 Adding Lake Superior sand...