One of the Latrobe Capstone classes of 23-24 has left a legacy and started a new tradition for years to come. On October 17, 2023 this class went to the local acid mine drainage to practice their trial run before leading the same process with Baggaely’s whole fifth grade class.
They needed to practice testing the pH of water, the amount of iron in the water, the amount of dissolved oxygen (DO), and the temperature of the water. The acid mine drainage is where “water is coming out of an old mine shaft and the water is often bringing out heavy metals to the surface” explained Christian Chambers, a student who takes Capstone and is interested in the science field.
After practicing the testing of water. they came back on October 19, 2023 for the real tests of the water with the fifth graders. The fifth graders split into three groups as well as the seniors, with teacher as an assistant. “The groups went to their own starting point so some could have started their tests at the Loyalhanna Creek part; whereas, another group started at the tank,” said Christian.
The tank is part one of the water treatment plan, where the water is fountaining out of the ground for the first time. Part two is the wetland, where the water runs through narrow tubes that pushes down the iron leaving some iron behind. Then the water runs through a creek that is in a snake like shape that helps leave the iron stuck in this creek. Next the water then gets put into the Loyalhanna because the water is now pure due to this system.
“My group started at the tanks where my paper flew into the iron water. Not starting off with a good start, but once we did our iron test we had the right amount of iron that should be in this water,” said Christian.
This part should have the most iron because it hasn’t gone through the system yet. He said that the fifth graders did a good job for this being their first part of the field trip and all of the tests had the right numbers.
The next part they went was the wetland where his group again tested the iron of the water getting a lower number than the tank station. This is the second part of the system, so some iron has left the water but not all of the iron is gone. His last station was the creek where his group tested for iron one last time and got pure water. This shows that the system works and is taking water full of iron and making it pure.
“The field trip showed the fifth graders some of the things that you can do at highschool and they got to experience parts of our local community and be a part of testing them,” said Christian about how this impacted the fifth graders.
This field trip was a success with all of the scientific tests done along with working with the fifth graders and letting them complete the tests, looking at the results, and tracking the results.
Christian said after the field trip, “I was happy because I knew our class was the first ever class to do this with the fifth graders so we did our best in order for this to take place again next year which Mr.Roberts recently told us it is on for next year because of how good it went with our class which makes me feel proud of this accomplishment.”
Capstone is a hands-on science class. Students have the chance to learn in creeks, go to bee farms, plant seeds in the classroom, and be around animals even in the classroom- they just hatched quails in class. This class is an honors science that is only offered to the seniors of Latrobe. Capstone indulges kids into the environment by having class out in the field and gives students the opportunity to work with their peers to learn about the environment while actively being in the environment.
