Conducting Water Quality Research in Africa

Abby Pettitt, '09 biology and psychology major, travelled with David Heroux, UMF assistant professor of chemistry, to Kaoma, Zambia in Southern Africa. As a member of WISE-Zambia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families and communities in developing countries, she conducted an undergraduate research project on drinking water safety, aimed at giving the people of Kaoma a better understanding of healthy drinking water with an ultimate goal of decreasing in water-borne disease.

With support from the Michael D. Wilson Scholarship Award in 2008, Pettitt and Heroux spent a month testing water sources and storage devices for possible contamination and investigated different methods of water treatment and how to use the results to show residents how to treat water prior to consumption.

Heroux also spent time working with the Kaoma Children's School, a community facility that offers free education to more than 700 area students from grades 1 to 9. His focus was to help increase the school's science resources and open the world of microscopic study to its students by bringing microscopes into the classroom.

As part of Heroux's work, he introduced the children to lesson plans on ways to maintain healthy water quality and actions they can take to share what they learned about drinking water safety with their families.

Watch the video below, taken at the recent Michael D. Wilson Symposium Day, to learn more about Pettitt's water quality research.

An Interview With David Heroux, Chair of the UMF Undergraduate Research Council

by Paul Rees '09, UMF creative writing major

The Michael D. Wilson Scholarship Program continues to see an increase in the number of applications from year to year, leaving the Undergraduate Research Council to make some difficult decisions when awarding scholarships.

Historically, the Wilson Scholarship Program has been able to support and promote undergraduate research across all disciplines at UMF. But Heroux is concerned that not having the resources could prevent students from doing their projects. “It is a UMF trait to do a lot with what we’re given,” explained David Heroux, assistant professor of chemistry and chair of the Council. “But with the continually increasing number of applicants, high quality projects are being turned away simply because the resources aren’t there. We want to get to the point where every qualified student who wants it, can do it,” said Heroux.