PREP high school students tour UTSA Environmental Engineering Lab
Top photo: Civil engineering student Jessica George, junior, demonstrates a water filter she built using gravel, sand, activated carbon and nanoparticles.
Bottom photo: Assistant Professor Heather Shipley shows PREP students how a spectrophotometer can determine water quality.
Top photo: Civil engineering student Jessica George, junior, demonstrates a water filter she built using gravel, sand, activated carbon and nanoparticles.
Bottom photo: Assistant Professor Heather Shipley shows PREP students how a spectrophotometer can determine water quality.
Share this Story(July 20, 2011)--How much water does San Antonio use in a day? Why is chlorine added to drinking water? How do you clean up an oil spill? Fourth-year students in the Prefreshman Engineering Program had a chance this month to ask their water-related questions when they toured the UTSA Environmental Engineering Laboratory with Assistant Professor Heather Shipley.
The wet lab, which is equipped with tools to study water quality, pollution control and water/wastewater treatment processes, gave the 40 high school students an opportunity to learn about Shipley's current research on nanoparticles. The field trip to the lab coincides with a series of lessons on water science in which the PREP 4 students also learned about the history of the acequias and aquifer in San Antonio.
In addition to the Environmental Engineering Lab, the students toured UTSA's new Advanced Visualization Lab and have plans to visit other science and engineering laboratories on campus before the seven-week summer program ends.
"We've always had faculty come give talks to our PREP students as part of our career awareness," said Paul Uhlig, PREP site director. "But, having the researchers present in their own labs takes the concept to the next level and really demonstrates how PREP can feed into careers for these students."
PREP began 32 years ago at UTSA to encourage students, especially minorities and female students, to pursue careers in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"When we talk to these students and show them what we're working on, we have the potential both to recruit them to UTSA and to get them excited about environmental engineering," said Shipley, who was the first woman to join the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in 2007.
Civil engineering student Jessica George, who also is a College of Engineering Ambassador and works in Shipley's laboratory, talked to the students about her experience and encouraged them to get involved with research as undergraduates. Shipley and George said they were both gratified to see that about half of the PREP 4 students are female.
"Having more women in the sciences is very important to me," George said.
Doctoral student Jinxuan Hu also spoke to the students about his research.
Events
Join the PEACE Center and Wellbeing Services for Denim Day, a day of learning about the importance of consent and why we wear denim on the last Wednesday of the month each April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Stop by our Denim Day display to take a photo in front of our Denim Wall, spin the "Is It Consent?" Wheel, and get a Concha or goodie.
Student Union Window Lounge, Main CampusLearn to use Zotero®, a citation manager that can help you store and organize citations you find during your research. Zotero can generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual EventThis event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.
