Water Quality B/C

[magicalforest]

For #1, why is the second option "just wrong?" Groundwater is just water beneath the surface of the earth. So isn't groundwater just water from the ground? When we were deciding between the two, we went with B since it was more general, while A was a more specific example of groundwater.

[caseyotis]

Water isn't "from" anywhere. You can't say "water from the ground". How did it get to the ground? It fell as rain. So saying it's "from the ground" is misleading and technically incorrect.
I wouldn't define groundwater as "water from the ground" unless I was being sarcastic. This test seems to have poorly worded spots. I'd go with the one that's definitely groundwater (or, at least, an example of it).

[magicalforest]

Could you explain more about your thought process? Sorry, I'm still not understanding why you cannot say "Groundwater is water from the ground."

From USGS:
Large amounts of water are stored in the ground. Most of the water in the ground comes from precipitation that infiltrates downward from the land surface.

From the description above (and various others) how could you say groundwater is not water from the ground?

I seem to ALWAYS have trouble with these kinds of questions. Even though I've done Awesome Aquifers before and studied groundwater before, I still seem to trip up on questions that seem "so obvious" to others. What from the question makes the choice "groundwater is water from the ground" so obviously wrong?

And no, the test did not "have poorly worded spots." If the test was not poorly worded, then it was overly obvious, such as
T/F Chlorine kills bacteria.

And I'm hung up on this question because this one, and one other question, costed me several several places in the NJ State tournament. I would like to know what went wrong.

Please elaborate on your thought process, or if anyone has any other interpretation, please do tell me.

Thanks.

[caseyotis]

It's the use of "from" that bugs me. I'm not an expert on WQ by any means and I do believe that it is partially luck-based.
However, I only object because of the use of "from". It might have made sense to use that to a question writer. I don't know.

[fozendog]

Could you explain more about your thought process? Sorry, I'm still not understanding why you cannot say "Groundwater is water from the ground."

Groundwater would be water that is in the ground, but not from it. As the definition says, the water is from precipitation from the sky that infiltrated into the ground and became ground water.

[jameswei]

Hi can someone explain to me how you make a correct salt solution for my salinometer.

Thanks

[darkdeserthighway]

Hi can someone explain to me how you make a correct salt solution for my salinometer.

Thanks

I assume you are making your salinometer for a solution of 100 mL. I would recommend using a 100mL graduated cylinder to start building your salinometer. You'll need an electronic balance, a stirring rod, a beaker of some sort, salt, and a straw with clay on the end of it (this will be your salinometer) First you weigh out, for example, 10 grams of salt (usually NaCl) using the electronic balance. Then, deposit that salt into the beaker. Use the beaker to transfer the salt in turn into the graduated cylinder. Fill the graduated cylinder with water until the volume is at 100 mL. Stir until all salt particles have been dissolved in the graduated cylinder. The resulting solution in this case would be a 10% salt solution. Place the salinometer clay end facing into the water. The water level at the top of the graduated cylinder should be on a spot on the body of the straw. Mark this level, and repeat these above steps when trying to get different percentages of salt concentration.

Good luck!

[PalladiumTurtle]

Hi can someone explain to me how you make a correct salt solution for my salinometer.

Hey there. So, the salt solutions which you will encounter in water quality will range from 1% to 10% in salinity. Salinity is the concentration of salt, in this case NaCl (if the term changes for different salts, someone correct me). Percentage is a nice easy calculation. It is the grams of NaCl divided by each 100 ml of water. That means, in order to make a 1% salinity solution, you need to measure out 1 gram of NaCl and dissolve it into 100 ml of water. Same idea for the other percentages. I typically place a piece of circular filter paper onto an electronic balance, zero it out, and place my salt on that so I can easily remove it.

Salinity (Grams of NaCl)/(100 ml of water) can be used as a conversion factor to calculate how much salt you need for different volumes. If you want to make 250 ml of 4% salinity water, you would follow this formula:
(250 ml)*((4 grams)/(100 ml)) = ((250*4)/(100)) = 10 grams of NaCl

Try to calibrate your hydrometer to measure as precisely as possible from 1% to 10%.

Hope that this answers your question!

[Mortem_Haedo]

Hey, anyone have any sites for the organisms as indicators of water quality?

Sorry if someone answered your question that I didn't notice, but for indicator studying I use quizlet a lot. If you need specific links, I can give them to you

[magicalforest]

I found Animal Diversity Web a very helpful website. It lists the ecologies, feeding behavior, reproductive behavior of most of the organisms.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/

Some of the organisms aren't in the database, such as Sweet Lips etc. Some you can just search the common name. Others you need to search by the scientific name because there are so many species.

This quizlet was particularly helpful. A great big thanks to whoever made it!

http://quizlet.com/29688073/water-quali ... ash-cards/

And you should try your local library, or your school library. A lot of them will have books on oceans, marine biology, coral reefs. A lot of them will seem to be for little kids, but don't be deceived. A lot of the information may seem juvenile, but is actually really relevant for the event. For example, some of the books I've read detailed the behaviors and structure of the sea cucumber. The content in the books easily matched the information in the Animal Diversity Web, run by a university. The information may seem simplistic, but you can really learn a lot from 6th or 7th grade books (books that define "oceanography" and sound it out and such).

Anyway, for really dedicated people, I've been told these two books are really helpful. One of them is rather expensive (even used is $40) so I would recommend you use it if you have really competitive States or are planning to go to Nats.

http://www.amazon.com/Marine-Biology-Fu ... ne+biology

http://www.amazon.com/The-Biology-Coral ... oral+reefs

But a lot of the tests I've taken (Conestoga and Tiger Invitationals) didn't really cover that much coral reefs. Most of them covered oceanography and marine biology (study those marine abiotic factors)! Focus on the waves, the air and water currents, the Coriolis effect. The questions on the ecologies and feeding behaviors etc. mainly came from Wikipedia.

This is such a broad event, you can read endlessly about it. If you're bored with marine biology, pick up an AP Bio textbook and read the last few chapters on Ecology. But I would recommend reading about Ecology at the very end. A lot a lot of tests of taken barely cover any ecology at all, or just cover the basics (What is commensalism? Give an example of mutualism?) Reading through the powerpoints on soinc.org would be sufficient.


Oh whoops, the person was just asking about indicator organisms... Oh well.