Courses
CVEN 4424 Environmental Organic Chemistry
This course focuses on prediction of the fate and transport of anthropogenic organic chemicals in aquatic environments. The course is divided into two major subjects: (1) physical transformations and (2) chemical transformations. The physical transformations include sorption, volatilization, and uptake, the processes that control the distribution of organic chemicals between the phases of interest: water, soil, air, biota. The chemical transformations include hydrolysis, redox, photolysis, and biologically-mediated reactions that control the breakdown of organic chemicals. Throughout both subjects, we will develop predictive relationships for the parameters that control the fate and transport of organic chemicals by developing a thorough understanding of the chemical structure of the organic chemicals.
CVEN 5404 Water Chemistry
VEN 3454 is a four-credit lecture and lab course. CVEN 5404 is a three-credit lecture and laboratory course. In both courses, we'll study both the theory and practice of water chemistry. Undergraduates and graduates will do the same work for this course; undergraduates earn one more credit hour.
In the lectures, I'll present chemistry concepts for natural and treated waters. We'll spend some time solving simple versions of problems you'll see in the problem sets. I'll also spend some time explaining the analytical methods that we'll use in the lab. To help you absorb the material and to hone your problem-solving skills, I'll assign problem sets. You'll have one week to complete each problem set. Graduate students in CVEN 5404 will get an extra problem related to a research problem. The problem sets will be graded by the TA. Solution sets will be available after the due date on the course web site. In the laboratory, you'll form teams of three students to perform a series of assigned experiments designed to illustrate the concepts presented in lecture and to study the chemistry of some local waters. To improve your writing skills, your lab group will complete reports describing the results for each of the labs, and you'll be given the opportunity to re-write each lab report. The instructor will grade the lab reports. Guidelines and examples will be available on the web. Finally, to test your comprehension of the concepts, I'll also give each class three open-book exams, all take-home exams.
EVEN 4100
Introduces students to hands-on environmental sampling and analysis techniques for characterization of surface water, subsurface water, soils and sediments, and air. Laboratories include stream sampling, drilling, monitoring well installation, water level, slug tests, air sampling.