A Water Quality Project in Interior Alaska, 2009

Shelby is a Gwich’in from Beaver. Her father's family is from Chalkyitsik. She travels to Chalkyitsik to visit her relatives during the summers (see image below for locations). During the Summer 2009 trip, she collected water samples from the Porcupine and Black rivers with her family (June). She also collected: (1) safewater (drinking water) samples from the Beaver facility in September; (2) a Yukon River sample in October; (3) a purified water sample in November; and (4) a snow sample which was melted (December).

Shelby measured the conductivity and total dissolved solutes using a Conductivity/TDS Meter provided by the Nenana River Project. She also filtered her samples to determine the suspended sediment load (these are the same measurements that Sam is making on the Nenana River).

She presented her results at the Annual Interior American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Science Fair which was held at the Interior Aleutians Campus at the Harper Building at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

You can see her results here.

Shelby won the overall prize with her water quality project. She received $1,000.00 to travel to the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 11-13, 2010!

Shelby placed 2nd in her division of Environmental Sciences at the National AISES science fair. Her project received many encouraging comments and she is looking forward to gathering more data this coming summer for a future science project.