Home

Laboratory investigations of reactor flow characteristics, acid rain/lake chemistry, gas transfer, and adsorption.

A major goal of the undergraduate laboratory course is to develop an atmosphere where student understanding will emerge for the physical, chemical, and biological processes that control material fate and transport in environmental and engineered systems. Student interest is piqued by laboratory exercises that present modern environmental problems to investigate and solve.

The experiments were designed to encourage the process of “learning around the edges.” The manifest purpose of an experiment may be an environmental problem, but it is expected that students will become familiar with analytical methods in the course of the laboratory experiment (without transforming the laboratory into an exercise in analytical techniques). It is our goal that students employ the theoretical principles that underpin the environmental field in analysis of their observations without transforming the laboratories into exercises in process theory. As a result, students can experience the excitement of addressing a current problem while coincidentally becoming cognizant of relevant physical, chemical, and biological principles.

At Cornell, student teams of two or three carry out the exercises, maximizing the opportunity for a hands-on experience. Each team is equipped with modern instrumentation as well as experimental reactor apparatus designed to facilitate the study of each topic. Computerized data acquisition, instrument control, and process control are used extensively to make it easier for students to learn how to use a variety of sensors.