Andy Baker

It is week 3 already, and this week one hundred Earth and Environmental Science students learnt about hydrology.

The group got to explore the Australian Water Outlook model and to determine the near surface soil moisture that was forecast from the model (https://awo.bom.gov.au).

They then went out on campus to measure the actual soil moisture and learn about sampling strategies and hypothesis testing. And made some irrigation experiments to determine the field capacity of the campus soils.

And finally, in the laboratory they analysed soil samples that they had brought from home, determining their field capacity and water saturation.

For students that live in an apartment or on campus: on request of UNSW Estate management those students got to make an investigation of a campus lawn that often floods.

All the data was combined in a shared spreadsheet on Teams / Sharepoint, where their data management skills were honed.

And, completely unrelated, there were free stickers to take away, thanks to the amazing Australian Cave Animal of the Year project (https://www.caveanimaloftheyear.org.au).