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News & Photos
Chemical Engineering Students Turn Consultants
McDonogh students are LifeReady. What does this mean? We teach students how to think, not what to think, empowering them to lead lives of consequence and do the greatest good.
LifeReady Skills Achieved: Creative & Critical Thinking | Communicating | Collaborating
Upper School Chemical Engineering students are stepping into the role of environmental consultants this semester, taking on a fictional chemical manufacturing company as their client and a very real challenge: designing an effective wastewater treatment system.
Before building anything, students established the limits for safely discharging water to the environment. They collected water samples from various locations on McDonogh's 800-acre campus and tested turbidity, pH, nitrate, phosphate, and conductivity to create an acceptable baseline for discharging wastewater into existing surface water, such as ponds and streams.
"The water needs to be clean enough to discharge to the environment, but not clean enough to be drinking water," says teacher Melanie Batarseh, who created mock wastewater using sand, clay, salt, plastic beads, Styrofoam beads, vinegar, instant coffee, and plant fertilizer.
Working in groups, each using a different process, students are now applying fundamental chemistry concepts to separate the waste from water. They will weigh and measure each component of the waste — with an eye toward selling or reusing it rather than sending it to a landfill.
Finally, the groups will present their findings to each other and, acting as a company, make a recommendation about which process to perfect. "This unit is designed to allow students to follow the steps of the engineering design process and decide how to solve a real-world problem in their own way," Batarseh says. "And along the way, they are discovering the environmental impact of the chemical industry, why the treatment process matters, and how these separation processes are done on a large scale in the real world."
McDonogh’s robust STEM programs develop intellectual confidence, creative problem-solving, and technical fluency in every student. The coordinated pathway from kindergarten to twelfth grade ensures that students do not restart their learning at each level; they advance. Beginning in the Lower School, students explore CAD, robotics, and guided tool safety. The program grows in Middle School with independence in design and fabrication to Upper School mastery of advanced systems, culminating in a Capstone experience where seniors tackle real community challenges in collaboration with Greatest Good McDonogh and 800-Acre Labs.
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McDonogh students are LifeReady. What does this mean? We teach students how to think, not what to think, empowering them to lead lives of consequence and do the greatest good.
LifeReady Skills Achieved: Creative & Critical Thinking | Communicating | Collaborating
Upper School Chemical Engineering students are stepping into the role of environmental consultants this semester, taking on a fictional chemical manufacturing company as their client and a very real challenge: designing an effective wastewater treatment system.
Before building anything, students established the limits for safely discharging water to the environment. They collected water samples from various locations on McDonogh's 800-acre campus and tested turbidity, pH, nitrate, phosphate, and conductivity to create an acceptable baseline for discharging wastewater into existing surface water, such as ponds and streams.
"The water needs to be clean enough to discharge to the environment, but not clean enough to be drinking water," says teacher Melanie Batarseh, who created mock wastewater using sand, clay, salt, plastic beads, Styrofoam beads, vinegar, instant coffee, and plant fertilizer.
Working in groups, each using a different process, students are now applying fundamental chemistry concepts to separate the waste from water. They will weigh and measure each component of the waste — with an eye toward selling or reusing it rather than sending it to a landfill.
Finally, the groups will present their findings to each other and, acting as a company, make a recommendation about which process to perfect. "This unit is designed to allow students to follow the steps of the engineering design process and decide how to solve a real-world problem in their own way," Batarseh says. "And along the way, they are discovering the environmental impact of the chemical industry, why the treatment process matters, and how these separation processes are done on a large scale in the real world."
McDonogh’s robust STEM programs develop intellectual confidence, creative problem-solving, and technical fluency in every student. The coordinated pathway from kindergarten to twelfth grade ensures that students do not restart their learning at each level; they advance. Beginning in the Lower School, students explore CAD, robotics, and guided tool safety. The program grows in Middle School with independence in design and fabrication to Upper School mastery of advanced systems, culminating in a Capstone experience where seniors tackle real community challenges in collaboration with Greatest Good McDonogh and 800-Acre Labs.