Project Title:
Subsurface Filtration Pilot Plant for the Enhancement of Undergraduate and Graduate
Project Director and Other Associated Faculty and Staff:
Dragolijub Bilanovic, Professor of Environmental Studies, Bemidji State University
Project Design:
Current Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SME&T) curricula at BSU:
Does not provide sufficient laboratory practice on the subject of ground water mainly because of the lack of larger, outdoor experimental facilities. To alleviate this problem, the project will involve construction of a Subsurface Filtration Pilot Plant (SFPP) at the BSU campus. This plant is expected to: (1) Improve education of SME&T majors by exposing them to the laboratory exercises focused on subsurface filtration process and associated methods of study of groundwater, (2) Broaden education of students majoring in SME&T fields by exposing them to process and methods through laboratory demonstrations and lectures at the pilot plant.
Project Evaluation and Outcomes:
During Summer of 2004, seven graduate and seven undergraduate students and four faculty of the Center for Environmental, Earth and Space Studies (CEESS) and the Dept. of Physics designed, built and tested a SFPP at BSU campus. The SFPP consist of a flow equalization tank and 4 separate filters. Water from Lake Bemidji is pumped into the tank and flows through a variety of types of filters which can be tested for its anaerobic/aerobic status. During Summer and Fall 2004 and Spring, 2005, experiments were conducted using the SFPP that were incorporated into Advanced Environmental Science, Geochemistry and Hydrogeology courses. These experiments involved almost 50 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in these courses. Evaluation of the project used student course evaluations and faculty evaluations. Student evaluations revealed that 75% of SME&T students think that experiments on SFPP helped them better understand topics of the course, 87% of the students enjoyed experiments on the SFPP, 67% of non-SME&T students think that demonstrations on SFPP helped them understand the subject better, and 80% of students enjoyed demonstrations on SFPP. Faculty evaluations revealed that faculty consider SFPP a complete success and continue to use it and develop new experimental routines.
Lessons Learned, Dissemination and Sustainability
In addition to continuing use of SFPP in the above mentioned courses, the SFPP has achieved other purposes such as serving as a demonstration unit to teach liberal education courses like “People and Environment” and “Integrated Science for Teachers.” During the 2004-2005 academic year, 150 students enrolled in these courses and participated in demonstrations using the SFPP. In addition, two graduate students are using SFPP to complete experiments for their MS thesis and two undergraduate students are preparing their honors thesis using the SFPP. Also, one graduate and one undergraduate student are working on further improvement of SFPP data acquisition and process control system.
(2)SFPP has played an unexpected role in community education on water and wastewater issues. Since the plant is next to a popular biking and walking trail, it generates interest among passers-by who stop and ask questions about its purpose. Information about SFPP project has been disseminated through a poster presentation by two graduate students at the “Realizing Student Potential” conference in March, 2005 in Minneapolis and an article about the SFPP, at the “Student Scholarship and Creative Achievement Conference at BSU in April, 2005 and was included in the BSU Insider newsletter in March, 2005.
