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ESP Welcomes Dr. Lovell Agwaramgbo of Dillard UniversityWentworth Institute of Technology and Colleges of the Fenway Enviornmental Science Programs recently welcomed Dr. Lovell Agwaramgbo, Professor of Chemistry at New Orleans' Dillard University to lecture on the remediation of contaminated soil in post-Katrina New Orleans. The visit also provided Dr. Agwaramgbo and opportunity to network with local soil remediation experts using the Colleges of the Fenway's network of environmental specialists.
Toxic Action Center's Annual Conferences @ WITFor the fourth consecutive year, Wentworth Institute of Technology hosted the Toxic Action Center's Annual Conference. This year's event drew over 300 environmental activists and featured over 35 technical, regulatory and communication workshops. This year's keynote speaker was Lois Gibbs, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) and the Love Canal Homeowners Association.
Green Chemistry - Dr. Richard Gurney (Simmons College)
Green Chemistry; Crystal Growth and Biomineralization The Gurney Lab focuses on projects that are at the boundary of Chemistry and Materials Science. Our research is concentrated on two primary areas; Green Chemistry and Crystal Growth. Conventionally, hazardous and inefficient techniques are applied to perform the oxidation of borneol to camphor in many undergraduate organic lab curricula. Our objective is to demonstrate that environmentally-sensitive, “greener” methods can be developed. We propose the oxidization in the absence of solvent, using a heterogenized catalyst, and microwave energy. Five heterogeneous catalysts previously used to oxidize alcohols in the microwave, including: clay-supported iron (III) nitrate, silica-supported activated manganese dioxide, clay-supported copper (II) nitrate with hydrogen peroxide, chromium trioxide impregnated on wet alumina, iodobenzene diacetate supported on alumina, were evaluated. We tested the efficiency of all the procedures above using borneol, determined the best yielding process, accessed each reagents impact on the environment, and made an educated decision as to the greenest method. These improvements can be adopted in a standard organic chemistry laboratory, while maintaining the integrity of the curriculum. In the future, we plan to investigate greener methods to reduce camphor to borneol and isoborneol, to complement the above experiment. Research involves the investigation of hazards, optimization of procedures, refinement of organic chemistry laboratory skills, the use of microwave energy as an alternative heating source and the development of undergraduate laboratory curriculum. I am one of the founding members of Green Chemistry Education Network, which is a consortium of educators whose current mission statement is "Research and development for the dissemination and implementation of green chemistry in education." For additional information, please contact: Richard W. Gurney 2nd Annual Muddy River Clean Up 2007
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NCSCE Capitol Hill Symposium and SENCER Poster Session Participants
Showcase Innovative Projects; Focus: Wheelock College
In the March 2007 SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) newsletter, the COF Environmental Science Program was highlighted! Please follow the link for more information. http://www.sencer.net/Resources/pdfs/Newsletters/March2007.pdf
Toxics Action Center's 2007 Southern New England Citizens' Conference
Jack Duggan, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Wentworth Institute of Technology, is hosting a workshop titled, Wanted: Clean Fill, at the Toxics Action Conference March 24th @ WIT. This workshop will provide an introduction to urban fill material, including how it is used, where it comes from and how it is regulated. Learn about the physical and chemical properties of soil and other urban fill material and figure out what “clean” really means.
For more information about this FREE conference, please visit http://www.toxicsaction.org
Dr. Jack Duggan, Colleges of the Fenway ( Boston ) will be traveling to Columbus Ohio on April 16th for the 2007 GEMI-CEDD Workshop. For three years, CEDD (Council of Environmental Deans and Directors) has been collaborating with the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), an organization of 39 leading companies, representing 22 business sectors, 2.5 million employees, and over 3,000 facilities worldwide, to bring GEMI tools (workbooks, planners, etc) into the curricula at CEDD schools. The GEMI companies are willing to assist institutions to incorporate the tools they have developed so our graduates will be versed in the needs and workings of these (mostly) global companies and be able to make a smooth transition from academia to the business world of environmental management.
The April workshop will provide CEDD members with an understanding of GEMI tools (best practice documents—both paper and electronic as well as interactive web tools) for inclusion in coursework. This workshop will demonstrate how some of GEMI’s newest interactive tools may be incorporated into instructional products for classroom use. The workshop will begin with an overview of GEMI and its tools by GEMI members with expertise on the various GEMI tools, followed by presentations featuring CEDD members who have implemented the use of one or more of the GEMI tools into their course curriculum. The workshop will conclude with a group discussion on GEMI/CEDD partnership activities and deliverables, tools and curricular modules, instructors guide, and web-based availability of the tools and materials. Dr. Duggan will give a presentation titled, Forging New Links, in which he discusses the use of a GEMI tool in the Environmental Forum course. Other presenters at the workshop include: Elizabeth Girardi Schoen, Senior Director, EHS Strategic Partnerships and Planning, Pfizer, Inc., Dr. Peter Saundry, Executive Director, National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), and Dr. Bruce Coull, President, Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD).
This research examines the levels of typical urban pollutants in water and soil samples of the Muddy River. This project was initiated during a service-learning course offered at Emmanuel College by Dr. Faina Ryvkin.
Our study at Emmanuel College began with an observation of the river…
The narrow, temperamental Muddy River has flowed by Emmanuel College since the institutions founding in 1919. The river can be considered an old companion to the college’s history, as well as an important characteristic of the community. Years of urbanization in the Fenway area has made a significant impact on both entities - the college saw a vibrant intellectual and cultural Mecca gradually emerge, whereas the river has been burdened by the inevitable backlash of an ever increasing anthropogenic grip on the environment.
Typical of an urban water system, the Muddy River is subject to high amounts of runoff due to paved and developed surroundings. The impacts of city runoff could be detrimental to this ecosystem as well as other ecosystems downstream. In our study of the composition of the Muddy River , we attempt to identify the levels of important EPA controlled substances in the Muddy river water and soil samples.
Project #1
Exposure to the heavy metals may result in reduced ability
to absorb essential nutrients, deformities and death of aquatic
organisms. Levels of essential metals such as copper, iron,
and zinc will be analyzed, as well as nonessential toxic metals
such as mercury, cadmium, chromium and lead. The levels of
all heavy metals were determined through atomic absorption
spectrophotometric analysis. The water samples were also tested
for nutrients, major cations and anions, turbidity, alkalinity,
pH, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and temperature.
Project #2
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are groups of carcinogenic
and mutagenic chemicals that have negative effect on the environment
and human health. For this reason the analysis of PAH in water
and air is a typical environmental requirement. This study
was conducted to determine the applicability of synchronous
fluorescence spectroscopy (SFS) and excitation-emission-matrix
(EEM) fluorimetry in differentiating between various PAH.
Project #3
Bioremediation is a process that can be used to treat water
from natural watersheds and urban storm run-off using biological
systems rather than chemically based treatments. Plants are
currently being used by environmental scientists as a way
to remove pollutants, such as toxic heavy metals from water
or soil. Our research intent is to investigate the phytoremediation
ability of water hyacinth to remove heavy metals such as lead
from natural water. Our results clearly demonstrate that the
kinetics of lead uptake is dependent on concentration. Research
is in progress to follow up on the kinetics of lead uptake,
mass balance and investigate the ability of water hyacinth
to remove other metals such as cadmium and arsenic from water
supplies.
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From June 20 to July 4 we will sample and study California ecology while we:
Learn more about “Ecology and Natural Resources of the West” (Bio 339) a Simmons/COF College Travel Course Currently taking enrollment, Contact Dr. Vladimir Douhovnikoff (vlad@simmons.edu)
I continue to use the satellite monitoring of marine mammals and turtles to supplement educational recourses and enhance interest in mathematics and science through the WhaleNet – Interactive Education program at Wheelock College. Over 110 marine animals have been satellite tagged and posted while WhaleNet’s traffic is about 16 million hits per year, a growth of about 25% per month compared to corresponding months last year. (http://whale.wheelock.edu)
I am on committees to develop formal and informal educational resources. On the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Education committee we are charged to develop educational resources to enhance the right whale conservation effort. I am also assisting the development of curricular units to supplement the formal education program of Animals in Curriculum-based Ecosystem Studies (ACES) project with the U. S. Satellite group funded by NOAA.
On a parallel vein, I continue to be active in research of the blue whale (and other marine mammal) populations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at the research station of the Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS) in Longue Pointe de Mingan, Quebec on the north shore of the Gulf. As the Associate Director of MICS, I am in the process of developing a 1-week off-campus, field experience course for undergraduate and graduate students at the research station in Quebec. See www.rorqual.com for an overview of the research and station. More details concerning the proposed August course will be forthcoming in the near future.
J. Michael Williamson
Associate Professor of Science, Wheelock College
Associate Director – Mingan Island Cetacean Study
On Saturday April 22, 2006 the first annual COF Clean-up occurred. Wheelock College students, Michelle Herbert, Erin Sellner, and Meghan Haney, organized this environmental cleanup of the Back Bay Fens on Earth Day. The clean-up was concentrated along the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens across from Simmons main campus. Interested volunteers signed up at garbagegirls@wheelock.edu and the first 60 to sign up received free t-shirts.
Seventy volunteers from Wheelock, Emmanuel, Wentworth and Simmons attended the clean-up on a very cold and windy day. Once volunteers signed in and had breakfast of donuts and juice, they were given the option to rake, shovel, or pick up trash. Once items were put into trash bags they were then left for the Boston Park and Recreation Department to retrieve. There were around forty bags of leaves, and fifteen bags of trash. After the clean up everyone was invited to gather around for a picnic lunch.
“The success of this clean-up is a wonderful representation of what collaboration among the COF schools can accomplish," said Ellen Faszewski. “In the future, this clean-up will not only be supported financially by the newly developed COF ES Program but it was also be organized by students enrolled in the program’s cornerstone Environmental Forum course.”
Thanks to:
Supplies:
Photographs
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The Back Bay Fens, that stretch of parkway that lines the Muddy River and winds its way through the COF campuses, is one of six parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted currently undergoing drastic improvements. Currently, four restoration projects are underway: Muddy River Restoration, Gatehouse #2, The Kelleher Rose Garden and The Woodlands Restoration Project.
For more information on these projects, use the following links to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy website.
Current Restoration Projects:
Through the years, COF students, alumni and faculty not only enjoyed the Emerald Necklace Parks, they have used it as a laboratory to study social and science issues alike. For more information about COF and the Emerald Necklace, contact Jack Duggan at dugganj@wit.edu
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