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| Water Testing |
| Oxygen Test |
| Hardness Test |
| pH Test |
| Temperature Test |
| Turbidity Test |
| Flow Rate Test |
| Sediment Types |
| Tree Girth |
How Do I Find the pH? |
| pH is the measure of relative acidity or alkalinity of water. Water with a pH of 7 is considered neutral. pH levels less than 7 are acidic, while pH levels higher than 7 are basic (alkaline). The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. | ||||||
METHOD 1 |
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| 1. Rinse tube thoroughly in stream or river. | 2. Fill tube to the top of the first clear section with sample to be tested. | 3. Wearing safety goggles, add eight (8) drops of green indicator solution. Mix sample and solution by inverting tube. | 4. Place sample into color comparator and turn color wheel until sample matches one of the colors on the wheel. Read pH number in window on the front of the black box. | |||
METHOD 2 |
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| 1. Your teacher will give you a pH sensor to soak in the water for a few minutes. | 2. Carefully place the sensor in the water and allow to soak. Soaking time allows the sensor to adjust to the water. | 3. The glass ball on the sensor is very fragile. Be careful when putting this in the stream. | 4. Take the reading from the LabQuest and record on your data sheet. | |||
What Do the Results Mean? |
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Factors at work within a body of water are limiting, that is, each has a maximum and minimum value, above or below which life for many species cannnot continue. The pH of water is one such factor. pH is measured on a scale from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. below 7 is considered acidic and above 7 is considered basic. The pH range controls the types of organisms that can survive in a particular environment. Many species cannot tolerate a change of even 1 pH unit, and only a few species can tolerate pH values over 9 or under 5. Remember the nearer to 7 (neutral) the more types of species can live in the environment.
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