La Loche Community School
From left:Tracy Walker (CLS), Tara Janvier-Lemaigre (Student), Alvera Herman (Student), Jennessa Herman (Sutdent), Dene Cheecham-Uhrich (Student), Jontae Des Roche (Student - ) (top), Nicholas Herman (Student), Robert Blyth (CLS)
Click here to view their poster.
Five Dene speaking high school students from La Loche Community School conducted an experiment looking at acid rain and its effect on our environment. ?Soil in their area is known to be susceptible to the effects of acid rain. They collected samples from northern Saskatchewan including soil, tree-core and monk?s hood lichen samples. They used X-ray Excited Optical Luminescence (XEOL) on the Soft X-ray Microcharacterization Beamline (SXRMB) and found a significant amount of sulphur in the tree cores and lichen. The lichen contained slightly more sulphur than in the tree core samples. The trees and the lichen are very exposed to the atmosphere. Aluminum was also found in the soil samples except for the top layer. The second layer of soil also contained chromium which did not show up in other layers. ?Another interesting finding was cesium in the tree core samples and the lichen which indicates it is likely in the atmosphere from an unknown source.
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Investigating the hub of light production, the control room with Dr. Ward Wurtz. |
| Getting orientated to the facility includes a tour of the machine shop. |  |
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Preparing a tree core sample for loading into the beamline. |
| Tree core samples mounted on sample holder. |  |
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Taking a break to interview with the media. |
Figuring out the complexities of x-ray fluorescence at the SXRMB beamline. Students compare data to known energies to identify elements present. |
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Dr. Lachlan Maclean loads the sample. |
Meticulous record keeping is essential. |
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Making sense of the scans |
Taking an experts advice on how to interrupt their scans and move forward with the next sample. |
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Everybody contributes to data analysis and preparation for their presentation. |
Laying out some ideas. |
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Presentation of their findings to the CLS staff. |
With the assistance of linguistic experts at home, the students taught us to say beamline in Dene, though we are still struggling with how to say it. |
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Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:39