TSTC environmental class provides field experience for students

(WACO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College students pursuing the Associate of Applied Science degree in Environmental Technology Compliance are given many opportunities for hands-on experience. The Environmental Sampling and Analysis class is no exception. 

Fourth-semester students taking that class recently were given the opportunity to go outside the classroom and apply what they have learned by dividing into groups and testing drinking water at several campus locations. 

At each building they visited, students followed an assigned water sampling process: flush the water, retrieve the sample, “zero” (clear) the sample, add anre-agent chemical to activate chlorine, read the sample and record results. The results showed students the chlorine readings in each water sample. 

Environmental student Maxwell Vollan said this was his first time to go out and do water sampling himself.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was trying to make sure that we had a nice, clean environment to get a representative sample,” Vollan said. 

Fellow student Pamela Jackson likes the program at TSTC because she is a hands-on learner, and the class allows her that opportunity. 

“I like going out there and doing stuff, rather than just watching somebody else doing it,” Jackson said. “I like to do it myself and get a feel for it.”

TSTC Environmental Technology state department chair Lester Bowers said even though the TSTC water system is monitored by the city, he wants the students to gain the hands-on experience while they are at TSTC.  

“If they go out and get a job as a field technician, this is what they will do,” Bowers said. “It is part of that job description, so I figured why not give them the technical aspect here, so when they go out there, they already know what they are doing.”

For more information on Texas State Technical College, visit tstc.edu.