Welcome to ENGR 350

Welcome to Engineering 350: Introduction to Water Quality. The objective of this course is to provide an overview of environmental, geologic and anthropogenic influences on the quality of surface and ground waters. Students will be introduced to common water quality parameters and some of the laboratory methods for physical, chemical and biological analysis of water. You will also be introduced water quality standards, common treatment methods for drinking and wastewater and the watershed approach to water quality control.

This course will integrate lecture, discussion, student projects, wet labs and outdoor field activities. It will require active learning on your part. If you have any type of disability that may hamper your full participation in these activities, please inform me as soon as possible so that we can make the appropriate accommodations. Check out the Student Disability Resource Center (http://sdrc.humboldt.edu/) for more information on the services provided at HSU.

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Prerequisites

The prerequisites for this course are CHEM 110, BIOL 105 and ENGR 111. You will be responsible for knowing the concepts taught in these courses. If you have not successfully passed these courses prior to this semester, it will be very difficult to do well in this class.

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Text

Students should purchase the following text:

George Tchobanoglous and Edward D. Schroeder, Water Quality, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1985.

We will be covering parts of chapters 1,2,3,4,8,11,12,13,and 14 in this course. This text is also used in several other engineering courses (Engr 416 and Engr 451) so hang onto this textbook for future use!

You will need a bound notebook for labs. This should not be a three ring binder. I do not want loose sheets of paper in labs. You will be using this notebook for all lab activities and for collecting data for your projects.

Supplemental reading materials will be made available via the web or handouts. Students will be expected to provide incidental materials (such as safety glasses, latex lab gloves, floppy disks, maps and presentation materials) as needed throughout the course

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Course Calender

Click here for the Course Schedule

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Course Format

The course consists of two 50-minute recitation sessions and one 3-hour lab per week.

You are expected to attend and participate in all class sessions. You are expected to complete the assigned reading prior to the date indicated in the class schedule, to do all homework assignments, and to participate fully in the team projects. Your fellow students may help evaluate your performance on the team projects. Attendance at all laboratory sessions is mandatory.

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Lecture Notes

For some lectures, supplemental lecture notes will be made available. Notes may be accessed using anonymous FTP on redwood. Files are Word documents located in my redwood FTP directory which is yet to be created. Stay tuned for more information here.

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Laboratories

Attendance at all laboratory sessions is mandatory. If you will miss a lab session, you must contact me {preferably in advance} to arrange a make up or alternate exercise. Failure to do so will result in a grade penalty.

Makes-ups will only be given in extraordinary situations that are verifiable and well documented. The reason for missing work must be substantial and quite beyond the student’s control. Not many excuses are accepted. I will decide whether an excuse is acceptable. One criterion for acceptance of any excuse will be its timeliness. Therefore, whenever possible, inform me before the missed work is due.

Details about the laboratory and laboratory and project report requirements will be distributed during the appropriate laboratory sessions.

Click here for details on the format of your laboratory notebooks.

Click here for details on the format of your weekly Lab Memo:

Click here for the Lab Memo Grade Sheet

Course Project Outline

Final Project Report Guidelines

LAB Procedures:
Turbidity and Solids Lab Procedure
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Procedure
Alkalinity and Hardness Procedure
Total and Fecal Coliform Procedure
BOD/COD Procedure

LAB SAFETY GUIDELINES - READ THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE FIRST LAB

Lab Assignments:

Due Date: Assignment - All Assignments are due by 5 pm in House 18

2/8/01 Write in your Lab Notebook from Field Sampling Lab

2/16/01 Lab Memo on Solids Lab, See Lab Memo Format document

2/23/01 Lab Memo on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Lab

3/2/01 Lab Memo on Freshwater Creek Fieldtrip

3/16/01 Lab Memo on Alkalinity and Hardness

4/6/01 Lab Memo on Total Coliforms, Fecal Coliforms and BOD

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Computer Access

You must use a computer account for this class. You will be expected to access class materials (notes, lecture outlines, syllabus...) from my public accounts. Email is also a very efficient and convenient way to ask questions about the course and course materials and its use is encouraged.

I will often communicate with you via Electronic Mail (EMAIL). Check your EMAIL account often for relevant information on the course. Normally I will respond to any messages within 24 hours during the regular school week. Short questions can be answered electronically very promptly by EMAIL. Either you or your instructor may use EMAIL to make an appointment for a face-to-face discussion.

Another wise suggestion: Send a copy of any important EMAIL to yourself as well as to the instructor. Keep the copy on until you know that the instructor has received it. That way, you can show when and to whom your EMAIL was sent.

ALL HSU students have accounts 3 computers:

axe.humboldt.edu (email)
redwood.humboldt.edu (ftp and some computing)
sorrel.humboldt.edu (WWW server)

Environmental resources engineering students will also receive an account on for the Unix Lab in SD (unixlab.cnrs.humboldt.edu).

Each of these systems uses the Unix operating system (OS), so you should start becoming familiar with this OS as soon as possible. Here are some links that might help you.

On line HELP for HSU students, staff and faculty.
On-line Unix help and tutorials
Unix Reference Desk
Pine Information Center Learn more about the HSU email system: pine. Pine was developed at the University of Washington.

There is an FTP site set up on redwood for use by this class. To access it:

Attach to redwood using your favorite FTP software.

Password: < your email address>

cd pub/engr350/ Back to Contents

Grading

The graded components of the course contribute to the final grade as follows:

15%     Exam 1
15%     Exam 2
20%     Final Exam (cumulative)
10%     Homework
10%     Quizzes
10%     Course Project
15%     Lab Reports
5%     Lab Notebooks

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Quizzes, Exams, Projects

There will be 10 quizzes throughout the semester. They will be given during the first 20 minutes of lab. The quizzes will cover material from the previous weeks lectures and labs and the current lab method.

There will be three exams during the semester, two midterms and one final.

There will also be a lab project. This project will have both written and oral components - all students will participate in one or more presentations to colleagues.

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Assignment Policies

All work must be handed in by 5 p.m. on the day it is due. Class will start promptly, and NO MATERIAL MAY BE HANDED IN WHILE THE CLASS IS IN SESSION. The student is reminded that homework assignments are considered an essential component of class participation and will therefore have an impact on the final grade.

All homework assignments should be neat and legible. Typewritten products, unless specified are required. Allow room between problems for comments. Use graph paper for all graphs unless they are computer-generated. Do not submit pages with ragged "tear-out" edges from spiral notebooks. Staple all pages together - do not use paper clips. Mistakes should be erased or painted over with "white out", not simply crossed out. I may deduct credit for sloppily prepared homework or refuse to accept it.

Further details about the format of laboratory and project reports will be handed out during the semester. Homework and laboratory assignments are due in my box in House 18 by 5 pm on the due date. Late assignments are penalized as follows:

10% if submitted by next class period
30% up to one week late
No credit after 1 week late.

I encourage questions about homework assignments and will offer help in office hours or by email. Back to Contents

Authorized Collaboration

In attempting to cope with the various aspects of this course, the sharing of ideas will often be educationally useful. Part of my teaching philosophy is to encourage students to learn from one another and to help fellow students to learn. The team projects illustrate the collaborative approach.

Collaboration on homework is authorized provided that it is done in the spirit of mutual learning and sharing of ideas. When this occurs, you should indicate the names of all persons with whom you collaborated. The copying of someone else’s work or ideas and representing them as your own is unethical and prohibited. As in most, if not all issues involving ethical considerations, it may be hard to know where to draw the line. If you do not give the names, I will presume the collaboration is copying, not mutual learning. If you do collaborate, it must be noted and you are still responsible for understanding all the material.

In the context of developing computer programs and solutions to homework, it is okay to discuss the problem statement and objectives, applicable theories and concepts, and desired results. Unless otherwise directed by your instructor, it is NOT acceptable to develop computer solutions in collaboration with other students.

If you have not already done so, it would be useful to read
the official HSU Student Code of Conduct ( http://www.humboldt.edu/~studaff/judaff/html/conductcode.html)
and HSU’s policy of academic honesty (http://www.humboldt.edu/~studaff/judaff/html/honesty.html).

I expect all students to abide by the Code of Conduct. Violations of Academic Honesty will result in a grade of F for the course.

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Homework Assignments

Due Date          Assignment    All assignments are due by 5 PM in House 18
1/25/01                Water Use Inventory
1/30/01                Complete on-line safety quiz
2/13/01                Ch 2 problems 13,14, 15
2/20/01                Ch 2 problems 16, 28(a)
3/06/01                Ch 2 problems 28 (b-e), 30, 32
3/16/01                Ch 2 problems 28,30,32 re-do for 80%
                            Extra-credit Ch. 2 problem 33
3/30/01                Ch 2 problems 40, 49

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Useful URLs

Here are some helpful URLs which may provide you with information you need to complete your laboratory and coursework.

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|| Eileen Cashman ||
|| Environmental Resources Engineering || Humboldt State University ||

This page is maintained by Eileen Cashman.
Please send any comments to emc7001@humboldt.edu.
Last Updated: January 4, 2001