Rockland Reporter

Thanks to Veolia, Dominican University New York is partnering with Spring Valley High School on a new STEM program.  

The company donated $10,000 to fund the program in which students will research the water quality at the Spring Valley Memorial Park pond and other sites. 

Regina Alvarez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, said the students will work at Dominican University, Spring Valley High School, and out in the field.  “They are going to learn how to do environmental testing and sampling of water and it’s going to involve several different things.  We have chemistry kits.  We are going to do DNA sequencing.  We are going to do microscope work.,” she said. “We are going to do very frequent samples to get a good picture of the health of the water body.”

The Veolia donation will be used to purchase equipment including bacterial analysis kits, microscopes, slides, filters, and DNA sequencing.  Chris Graziano, Vice President/General Manager of Veolia Water Operations in New York said, “We are committed to contributing to our local communities with the same dedication with which we service and protect their environment and economy.”

The program will expose students to STEM fields, let students do authentic research, and examine the state of a much-used pond as a service to the community. 

Original source can be found here.