Jenna Fairchild (UR) - Science in Quarantine

Even during COVID-19, there is science all around us providing experiment opportunities. Today, I took advantage of the rainy weather to do water quality experiments. 

Experiment location: My house in Port Orange, FL

Weather Conditions:

-Very cloudy

-Constant raining

-60% chance of rain at 1:00PM

Rainy cloudy quarantine day

Results:

Turbidity: 0 JTU

pH: 7

Dissolved Oxygen: 2 ppm
Nitrate: 3 ppm

Phosphate: 0.5

Turbidity

pH

Dissolved Oxygen

Nitrate

Phosphate

It is interesting to see how rain water, which completely surrounds us on rainy days, can have levels of poor quality without us noticing because we can't always see water quality with our naked eyes. Specifically, rain water is usually 5.6 on the pH scale, but I measured it to be 7, which is neutral. This is interesting because it means that todays rain is slightly more basic than its normal acidic level. This level of pH is comparable to drinking water! Once I have more collections of these measurements, I will be able to develop graphs comparing each water quality variable. I am very excited to compare water quality differences depending on the source of the water. Specifically, I am looking forward to sampling water from my favorite surf spot and learning what kind of conditions I've been swimming in. 

Jenna Fairchild