STEM SVG Institute continues to expand youth learning options

The S.T.E.M SVG is an institute that offers a summer program and tutoring classes with multidisciplinary and progressive learning approaches to youths in St Vincent and the Grenadines. S.T.E.M educates students in the areas of  Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics which is abbreviated as the name S.T.E.M.  S.T.E.M SVG  tutoring was founded and launched in 2011 by Petrus Gumbs with a total 24 students then later incorporated a summer program in 2012.

This summer program offers additional educational learning than the primary areas along with widening the CPEA curriculum by introducing learning areas such as Robotics and 3D printing, as a result, this made S.T.E.M to grow tremendously over the years and is now known to be the leading youth development program in Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics in SVG.  As a whole, the main goals of the S.T.E.M SVG Institute are to expose the youths of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to a broader curriculum beyond CPEA, encourage and guide students to become innovators, and better problem solvers in their everyday life.

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic S.T.E.M SVG was unable to host its annual summer program for two (2 ) years. However, this year 2022, STEM SVG decided to bring back its progressive educational summer program with a focus on theme conservation. The collaboration of various organizations and tutors with the S.T.E.M summer program was able to successfully expose and indulge students in fun and interactive learning about the importance of conservation and the effects of poor conservation on our natural environment. One of the categories that were mainly focused on regarding this theme was how to conserve water in our rivers and beaches.

National Fisheries and the National Parks, Rivers, and Beaches authority were able to play a phenomenal part to help students the ability to work closely with them as a scientist to conduct water quality testing. However, The main purpose of this exercise is for only educational development and career exposure, and students were strictly guided and monitored by lab professionals to make sure their testing was done safely and accurately. To conduct the testing Students tested water quality tests from various points of a river using microbiological and Chemical parameters. Students were also taught how to apply themselves to analytical thinking on safety tips that can be done to help conserve our rivers from being contaminated

What is water quality testing and why is it important? 

Water quality testing can be explained as measuring the conditions of water according to its physical, biological, and natural properties using various parameters( Svalbarði Polar Iceberg, 2022). these parameters are:

• Physical- determined by sight, smell taste, and a touch of the water
• Chemical-measuring the characteristics that make up the natural environment with which water has direct contact: Total hardness, Chlorine, PH, Dissolved oxygen.
• Microbiological-measuring the number of micro-organisms that is present in the water: bacteria, algae, viruses, protozoa.

Water plays a vital role in the environment around us. Whether it is groundwater, surface water, or open water, knowing the quality of the water is a necessity. Therefore, conducting a water quality test is important for human consumption, industrial and domestic use, and the flora and fauna of the environment.

Water Quality For Human Consumption 

Testing Water quality for human consumption is important in maintaining a clean and healthy water supply so that humans do not get ill. Illness such as diarrhoea, cholera, hepatitis, and polio can affect humans due to micro-organism contaminants or chronic blood, kidney, or liver cancer due to Chemical contaminants present in the water(WHO,2022). In St.Vincent and the Grenadines, water is tested and treated by the Public Health and the Central Sewage Water Authority to ensure all citizens consume clean healthy water.

 Water quality for Environmental and industrial use 

 Environmental water quality testing is done on beaches, rivers swamps, and wetlands which provide a home and food for animals and plants. This is done to ensure these animals and plants live and feed on suitable water. Water quality provides results that can determine the types of fishes that live in the water and whether treatment is required as a result of contamination.

An organization such as National Fisheries has been designated to conserve and implement measures that prohibit the use of harmful chemicals in the water to exploit aquatic species such as fishes, shellfishes, and coral reefs. Water Testing in rivers and beaches in well residence areas is also one prominent factor. This is because there may be farms, houses, or factories that can contaminate water leaving the marine life exploited.

In addition, water quality testing can be done for industrial purposes. Process water is generated for manufacturing processes, power generation, and similar applications. However, this process water must fit the quality standard to prevent contamination of processed products and damage to industrial machinery.

Conducting a Chemical and Microbial Water Quality Test with S.T.E.M SVG 

 The National Parks, Rivers, and Beaches Authority along with National Fishes guided the students on how to conduct a Chemical and Microbial water quality test. Both tests were done using water samples from Fenton River.

Chemical Test

Chemical testing was done to measure the temperature of how hot or cold the water was, Dissolved oxygen to determine the percentage and milligram of oxygen that is dissolved into the water, conductivity to determine the capability of water to pass electrical flow, PH to determine whether the water was acidic or base, nitrogen to determine the level of nitrates in parts per million and phosphate how much was present in parts per million, lastly, turbidity was also measured to how cloudy the water was.

These properties were measured using the following instruments:

• l PH w acid or base quality of water
• l YSI Multi-parameter meter
• l Sterile bottles
• l Gloves
• l Chemical solutions to detect Dissolves oxygen, Conductivity, PH Nitrogen, and phosphate reactions
• l Turbidity reader

Fig 3: Table showing the readings of Chemical Test results for the entrance of the river.

Microbial testing was done using Heterotrophic plate count and Fecal Coliform count. Both tests were done using the Membrane Filtration method. A Heterotrophic plate count measures the total amount of colony formation of bacteria present in water whereas a faecal coliform count is to give a general indication of how sanitary the water is this also gives an indicator that other harmful bacteria are present in the water. The membrane filtration method consists of using a filter funnel to filter the sample water on the manifold and then placing the filter in a petri dish m-FC agar to measure faecal coliform and m-HPC to determine Heterotrophic plate count.

Other materials used for the Test were:

Fecal coliform test   Heterophic Plate count 

Water bathe  Incubator- ABC LAB

Colony counter  Colony counter

Autoclave Inferred thermometer

 PH meter

After the students place the filter on their Petri dishes, the Petri dishes containing m-FC agar were placed in a circulating water bath at 44.5 C for 24 whereas petri dishes hours containing m-HPC agar were placed in an incubator for 121C for 15 48 hours. after the given time, petri dishes were removed from the water bathe and incubator to record all readings

Fig 4 Faecal coliform plate count test results 

Results obtained from the faecal coliform plate count was obtained from a 50 ml of river water sample: the entrance of the river and the top of the river. Based on the results obtained, students noticed that there was an indication of faecal coliform present in the water based on the colour shown on petri dishes. In sample 1 there was a total of 14 colony counts obtained from the amount of water sampled.

This was determined observed on filter paper in petri dishes however there was an increase of 43 colony counts obtained in sample 3; sampled from the entrance of the river. For accuracy, students swapped the colonies and placed them into 3 tubes filled with turbidity broth. This turbidity broth produces gas within an inverted vail which indicates a positive result for faecal coliform if gas appears in vail. However, gas was present within 1 of 3 turbidity broth tubes test in sample 1 and an indication of gas within 2 of 3 turbidity broth tubes in sample 3.

 Heterotrophic plate count results 

Results obtained from the Heterotrophic plate count were obtained from a 50ml sample of water from the middle of the river and the bottom of the river. Based on the results the number of colonies was too numerous to count ( TNTC) due to the crowd of colonies on the plate. This is an indication that there is an overgrowth of micro-organisms present in the water.

Conservative measures

After students conducted their water quality test. Students were able to do analytical thinking creating solutions that can be used to limit the contamination of rivers. Some student’s responses are :

• Gabriel Bess

“  Preventing the raring of animals close to rivers and beaches and limiting the intensity of grazing can limit pathogenic bacteria entering rivers. The raring of animals close to the river can result in pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and salmonella entering the rivers and streams by running off this can also occur if farmers overgraze. Overgrazing can also cause soil erosion and kill the habitat of fish. To reduce this risk, farmers can decrease the amount and intensity of grazing and keep livestock out of areas close to rivers”.

• Areyanna Balcome

“Preventing the distribution of waste products into rivers and beaches  can limit the change of the natural properties of water. When debris is thrown or washed into the river, it can choke or disable marine life as a result of the decreased dissolved oxygen when debris decay. Taking your garbage home and disposing it into a garbage bin can reduce contamination and save aquatic animals”.

• Mikaila Corridon 

   “Reduce the use of pesticides on crops. Using pesticides on crops can contaminate groundwater which can be transported to surface water. Pesticides are hard to degrade which can result in marine life being exploited’’.

 Preventative Measure 

As we progress through the summer vacation by going to the river or beaches etc. Let us remember to conserve our water to protect our marine life by praticing safety measures to help limit the pollution of our rivers and beaches. Also, let us remember that rivers can not only be contaminated by human interference but animals. Therefore, before consuming water from rivers, please ensure to boil water. Boiling water from rivers can reduce the risk of humans getting sick by kill any possible contaminant that is present in the water before consumption(

Special Thanks to National Parks, Rivers, Beaches, and National Fisheries Division for making sure the water quality test were conducted safely and accurately and other organizations who played would have played a phenomenal role in ensuring students were exposed to various educational levels. In addition, S.T.E.M SVG also wants to thank the tutors and other facilitators who were able to protect and guide our students throughout this program.