Partnering with Communities to Monitor and Protect Local Lakes, since 2025
Wang Group partners with the Preservation Alliance of Hyde Lake (PAHL), Professor Yang Yang's group at Clarkson University, and technical collaborators to conduct citizen science-based monitoring of harmful algal blooms and lake water quality in northern New York. Community members contribute local knowledge, assist with field activities, and help connect scientific findings with lake-management priorities. The project combines seasonal field monitoring with laboratory analysis of nutrients, chlorophyll, water clarity, dissolved oxygen, and other indicators related to harmful algal blooms. Our group also shares results through community meetings, public presentations, and regional lake-association events so that the collected data can support informed restoration and management decisions. This work has been supported by Jefferson County FLLOWPA and the NYS Center of Excellence in Healthy Water Solutions, with analytical and research support from Clarkson University’s Center for Air and Aquatic Resources Engineering and Sciences (CAARES).
A Series of K-12 STEM Education Outreach at the North Country Children's Museum, Fall 2024
Wang group hosted the “Where Water Comes” after-school program and Family Science Saturday event at the North Country Children’s Museum in Fall 2024 as part of K-12 educational outreach efforts supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that Wang Group was awarded. Both events were designed to engage families and young kids from the community by discovering the science of water and water treatment. The Wang Group members and student volunteers from Dr. Wang's Water and Wastewater Treatment Engineering course helped set up four interactive activity tables, covering water cycle, community water/wastewater systems, water treatment processes & quality, and water filtration with demonstration and hands-on experiments. All student volunteers did a fantastic job applying classroom knowledge to create hands-on learning experiences for the next generation, fostering curiosity and awareness about the importance of water in our lives.
Fall 2022 Course for SOAR (Stimulating Opportunities After Retirement) North Country
As a volunteer presenter, Dr. Wang developed a "Drinking Water Treatment" course for a local "third age" learning group, SOAR North Country. Aiming to promote public awareness of water, sanitation, and hygiene, the course introduced the goals and history of water treatment, water sources and characteristics, regulations and treatment processes. Dr. Wang and a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Clarkson University, Yunqiao Guan, also developed a demonstration for conventional water treatment flow diagram, including coagulation/flocculation, sedimentation, granular media filtration, and disinfection. The demonstration showed clear differences in the water quality before and after treatment, and also visualized the chemical reaction that happens in the coagulation/flocculation process, which, however, is usually hard to be understood by the public.