Dear ENVS students,
Are you interested in water? Water quality? Rain? Sustainable development? Building efficiency? Urban design? Green roofs? Weather? Meteorology? The facilities behind our LC Green rating? Did you know that LC has two green roofs on the top of Templeton? The new career center has a new green roof, and there has been a green roof above the book store for 2-3 years.
Along with collaborators at the University of Portland, we have just received funding to do a comparative study of the green roofs at our two respective colleges. We are going to measure the amount of runoff from the green roofs (remember: green roofs should reduce runoff!) and the water quality of the runoff (remember: green roofs should provide some amount of filtering of the water). During this summer we will install a weather station on the career center green roof, and we will estimate the extent to which the green roof assists in the thermal regulation of Templeton.
As a student researcher, your responsibilities will include:
- Checking on the Career Center green roof during rain events to observe if there is runoff
- If there is runoff, collecting a nalgene-sized bottle sample to store in a Bodine refrigerator for analysis
- Keeping careful records in a lab notebook.
- Assisting with the installation of a weather station on the career center roof during May, 2016.
- Visiting Dr. Poor’s water quality lab at UP to become familiar with the water quality analysis. (Her students will be responsible for the bulk of the analysis.)
- Preliminary data analysis and preparation of reports
This project will run from January – Nov 2016.
You will be paid $10/hour for your time and effort, and we expect to pay a total of $4,000 to an LC undergraduate assistant.
This work could also possibly contribute to your own concentration / thesis aspirations.
It would be very helpful if you live on campus, since rain happens all the time: evenings, weekends, and holidays! We hope to check the roof at least daily during rain events, possibly more frequently if it is a heavy rain event. It is also desired that you are in town over the summer, to assist with the installation of the weather station. It is not a full-time position, so you would be welcome to have additional employment in town over the summer.
I may be able to hire a couple of students to distribute the monitoring load, so if you’re interested but you live off campus or plan to be away over the summer, please apply all the same!
To apply for this position:
- Zip me a brief email (jkleiss@lclark.edu) right away to let me know you’re interested!
- Send me a cover page that summarizes your interest in this position. Items you may wish to highlight:
- Your interest in the topic, including related course work and work experience (experience is not required)
- Your availability during Spring ’16, Summer ’16, and Fall ’16.
- The names of two references (eg. LC professors or previous employers) who I can ask for a recommendation, in case I haven’t had you in class yet. No need for a letter of recommendation, but you should check with them to make sure that it’s OK if I call themfor a referral on your behalf.
I’m excited to start this project, and it’s fun to meet our counterparts at the University of Portland. I hope that you’re excited too, and you’ll send me an email with your interest!
And to all … have a peaceful, restful, and joyous winter break! Great job getting through another challenging semester!
Jessica Kleiss