Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center

Empowering girls in STEAM at the Potomac Science Center

Lauren Reuscher — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 17:31:16 +0000

Empowering girls in STEAM at the Potomac Science Center Lauren Reuscher Wed, 03/06/2024 - 12:31

��ӽ紫ý’s Potomac Science Center hosted the Girls in STEAM Empowerment Conference on Thursday, February 29. This annual event welcomed 60 middle school students for a day of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). The event promotes STEAM careers for young women through engaging discussions and hands-on activities.

The Girls in STEAM Empowerment Conference was cosponsored by Mason, Schneider Electric, Prince William County Public Schools, The NEED Project, Dominion Energy, Iron Mountain Data Centers, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, and ACI Solutions. Pictured: Abigail Weigel, Schneider Electric. Photo by PEREC

Students learned about energy science and engineered energy efficient structures. All the student attendees came from five Title I schools in Prince William County.

The National Energy Education Development Project (The NEED Project) led two energy workshops. Participants built and tested the efficiency of a mocked-up “thermally insulated house” and generated and measured electricity conducted through various objects.

Middle school students engaged in hands-on STEAM activities along the waterfront of the Potomac Science Center. Photo by PEREC

A panel of women in STEAM shared stories about how they came into their careers and responded to student questions. The panel included Cindy Smith, professor of environmental science and policy and director K-12 partnerships for the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC).

Mason Professor Cindy Smith (second from left) with Prince William County Schools staff Melinda Landry, Jeanne Jabara BS Biology ‘80, MS Environmental Biology ‘83, and Jess Doiron. Photo by PEREC

The Girls in STEAM Empowerment Conference is cosponsored by Mason, Schneider Electric, Prince William County Public Schools, The NEED Project, Dominion Energy, Iron Mountain Data Centers, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, and ACI Solutions.

Conference space at the Potomac Science Center. Photo by PEREC

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Science and engineering meet to create new surface water robot

Sarah Holland — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:35:06 +0000

Science and engineering meet to create new surface water robot Sarah Holland Tue, 10/17/2023 - 09:35

In his research on freshwater systems in the DC/Virginia area, ��ӽ紫ý College of Science professor R. Christian Jones was spending much of his time hauling boats. Too much, he thought.

McCue and Li with the autonomous surface water vehicle. Photo by Evan Cantwell/��ӽ紫ý.

“In order to take a sample from a pond,” he said, “I would need to haul a boat in, put the equipment in, launch it, and then bring it all back. It would add at least an hour and required the body of water to have an access point for a boat.”

As the director of Mason’s Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC), Jones knew of a colleague who also works at the Potomac Science Center (PSC) where PEREC is housed, and who could help with this conundrum. He approached College of Engineering and Computing professor Leigh McCue and undergraduate student Ze Li with an idea: a machine that could go out on the pond, skim for plankton samples and collect water samples, and return to shore—all while the researcher remains on land.

This project is part of a larger grant from the National Science Foundation for Persistent and Accessible Maritime Monitoring (PAMM), of which McCue is the lead investigator. The multiyear grant—awarded in 2022 for more than $500,000—focuses on increasing educational, research, and robotics operations and development for students ranging from sixth grade to graduate level, in order to improve the applications of and expanded the use of unmanned marine vehicles. It also includes making such vehicles more accessible for individuals with motion limitations, which in turn can increase accessibility for all researchers.

“Researchers around the globe are utilizing robotics to conduct maritime research, which is an increasingly critical field of study,” explained McCue. “Through this grant, we’re developing more affordable maritime research tools to improve access for great science, whether citizen science or research-grade science. This project fit nicely into that mission.”

The autonomous surface water device created by Li this summer was built from scratch using CAD modeling and 3D printed materials. Li’s experience working with robotics through extracurriculars like his job with Starship Technologies—the company that manages the famous food robots seen rolling around campus—and the Mason Innovation Exchange’s (MIX) 3D printing training helped him navigate the challenges of creating this brand-new machine.

"We thought it was more beneficial to create something new by developing our design around an open-source hull model," Li said. “There’s more opportunity for us to iterate on the prototype.”

The team hopes to continue to improve the machine’s design, now that it’s being field-tested by Jones: improved autonomous capabilities and controls are both on the short list of potential improvements. Li also sees a potential for expanded testing of such data points as water temperature, turbidity, and salinity.

Jones predicts that this machine will be a boon for both access and efficiency. “The number of accessible ponds will increase dramatically with this, and we’ll be able to sample up to eight in a day instead of just one or two,” Jones said.

The machine will also allow for more immediate responses to sudden, unpredictable, and time-sensitive events, like taking samples immediately after storms. Jones even sees possible uses for this machine to take samples during major pollution events, keeping the researchers safe from exposure to harmful chemicals while still acquiring necessary data.

Jones emphasized that this project was made possible by the collaboration between the two colleges. “At a place like PSC where we’re all working together, seeing each other's labs and hearing about research, this sort of collaboration comes naturally,” he said. “It’s a beautiful opportunity for us all to become better researchers and do better science.”

Jones, McCue, and Li outside PSC. Photo by Evan Cantwell/��ӽ紫ý.

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Removing invasive plants protects the ecosystem at the Potomac Science Center and beyond

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:12:18 +0000

Removing invasive plants protects the ecosystem at the Potomac Science Center and beyond Lauren Reuscher Thu, 06/29/2023 - 10:12

In This Story

Cynthia Smith

R. Christian Jones

T. Reid Nelson

When you hear the word “mimosa,” what first comes to mind? If you think about a bubbly beverage enjoyed at brunch, you’re not wrong—but if you think of a flowering tree that is considered invasive to the Northern Virginia ecosystem? You’re also not wrong.

Chris Jones, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and director of PEREC, trims down the branches of an invasive mimosa tree. Photo by Cindy Smith/PEREC

��ӽ紫ý’s Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) recently hosted an invasive species removal event where students, faculty, staff, and community members came together to remove harmful, invasive plants around the Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge, Virginia.

The mimosa trees were one of the main species removed. The delicate, sweet-smelling blossoms make the mimosa an attractive ornamental tree—the main reason these plants were transported to North America. Originally native to central China, Japan, and South Korea, the mimosa is a vigorous grower and produces a high number of seeds, making it an ecological threat to native species.

“Invasive plants are non-native or introduced to an ecosystem and can cause environmental or economic harm,” said Cindy Smith, PhD Environmental Science and Public Policy ’05, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and K-12 education and outreach director for PEREC. “They can grow faster than native species, often shading out natives, spread quickly, and may not be a great food source for native birds and insects.”

The term “invasive” does not only apply to plants, trees, and shrubs. “We also have invasive insects, worms, pigs, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish in Virginia,” said Smith.

Reid Nelson, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and fisheries ecologist with PEREC, holds a snakehead he caught off the Potomac Science Center dock. Invasive in the United States, this voracious fish can easily out-compete native and established predators. Photo by Elizabeth Greenheck

A variety of conditions allow invasive species to thrive.

“When the Potomac Science Center first opened in 2018, we noticed a couple of beavers munching the trees around the retention pond perimeter,” said Smith. “The beavers mowed down many of the native oak, sycamore, and maple trees, creating a sunny opening for fast-growing invasives to take off and thrive.”

Photo by Adrian Hagarty/PEREC

Callery pear trees and Japanese honeysuckle, along with the mimosas, were crowding and taking over the pond perimeter. Japanese honeysuckle vine overtakes shrubs and can choke trees. Callery pear trees spread profusely in areas that do not benefit from their presence—along shorelines, in open fields, farmland, and roadside ditches.

Removing invasive species allows native plants to thrive, including those that are part of the Mason Arboretum. Native vegetation also supports native birds and insects. PEREC is cataloging the native plants around the Potomac Science Center so that visitors who walk along the trail can learn about what is growing at the site.

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Community approach to reducing single-use plastic beverage bottles wins EPA award

Colleen Rich — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 17:34:53 +0000

Community approach to reducing single-use plastic beverage bottles wins EPA award Colleen Rich Tue, 08/09/2022 - 13:34

In February 2021, a survey of two high schools in Woodbridge, Virginia, showed that a surprising number of students used three or more plastic beverage bottles a day, mostly bottles of water.

This information shocked Freedom High School seniors Stephanie Ruiz Molina and Ashley Munoz-Trujillo. They realized that their school could be disposing of almost 10,000 bottles a week, and they wanted to do something to help reduce that number.

Mason graduate students Sammie Alexander and Rachel Kelmartin share fish and plankton collection techniques with high school teachers and students.
Photo provided

Their work as a part of the collaborative community project, A Community Approach to Reducing Single-Use Plastic Beverage Bottles, earned them the prestigious President’s Environmental Youth Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This two-year pilot project was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program and led by ��ӽ紫ý researchers Cindy Smith, Scott Glaberman, T. Reid Nelson and Kim de Mutsert, all members of the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) at Mason’s Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge.

“What blew us away was the data the students collected,” said Smith, who served as the project’s principal investigator. “If students in each of the 13 Prince William County high schools toss out 10,000 single use bottles a week, that’s almost 4.7 million single-use bottles disposed of during the school year, just for these high schools.”

Smith said the project’s goal was to raise awareness of and connect participants to the ecological impacts of debris, expand participation in clean-up efforts, and change disposable water bottle use behavior at two high schools.

“In addition to changing behavior, we hoped that students would see the connection of how disposable bottles, which may fall out of cars in school parking lots and blow out of trash cans at athletic fields, frequently end up in storm drains and then wash into our local streams and waterways where they may impact aquatic organisms,” she said.

Photo provided

The project targeted 20 teachers and 35 high school student delegates, whose efforts could impact the behavior of thousands of students at Freedom High School (2,159 students), located near Neabsco Creek, one of the county’s most trash-laden waterbodies, and Patriot High School (2,678 students), in the Broad Run watershed.

Community partners working with the students and Mason included Keep Prince William Beautiful, Prince William County Public Works Watershed Division, Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District, Northern Virginia Regional Commission, and both high schools.

Mason Environmental Science and Policy students also had the opportunity to get involved, including those in de Mutsert’s and Smith’s labs and Glaberman’s Environmental Toxicology class.

Ruiz Molina and Munoz-Trujillo were a part of the delegate crew at Freedom High that successfully petitioned the school to install water bottle stations for students, collected more than 300 student action pledges, partnered with local organizations to provide one donated reusable bottle to each student who pledged, and created a social media campaign to reach their peers.

Videos of the teacher and student trainings are available here.