Each year, nearly 200 middle schoolers visit INSTAAR and our neighbor, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), for our annual Open House. At the Open House, students get to listen to presentations and participate in hands-on activities both at nearby Boulder Creek and in a variety of labs.

Here we welcome middle school students and learners of all ages to take virtual tours of some of our INSTAAR laboratory facilities, including some that are featured during the Open House. We hope you find the tours both informative and fun! We will continue to add more labs in the future.

 

Colorado Snow Lab, INSTAAR

Colorado Snow Lab, INSTAAR

Over 25% of the global population live in semi-arid portions of the globe in which water demands meet or exceed water supply. At higher elevations in the western U.S., seasonal snow accumulation provides the primary source of water input to the terrestrial ecosystem and 60 million people. Improved understanding of hydrologic fluxes in cold regions is essential for sustainable management of natural resources and for making informed environmental policy decisions.
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Diatom Lab, INSTAAR

Diatom Lab, INSTAARDiatoms are single-celled algae found in nearly every aquatic habitat that are often used as environmental indicators. As former University of Colorado graduate student - and diatom expert to be - Tyler Kohler explains, preparing diatoms for examination under one of the Diatom Lab’s three research microscopes is a multistep process. First the diatom samples are digested for a couple of days with acid. This dissolves the organic material inside the diatoms’ glass cell walls so that the cool markings characteristic of diatoms are visible under the microscope, enabling the diatoms to be identified. 
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Dissolved Organic Matter Characterization Lab, INSTAAR

DOM Lab, INSTAARAs former INSTAAR graduate student Rachel Gabor explained in her (successful – congrats Rachel!) Ph.D. defense, dissolved organic matter (DOM) matters. DOM is found in waters everywhere giving a brown color, for example, to waters in bogs and swamps.  In aquatic ecosystems, it can affect the way nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are transported through watersheds.  It can also affect the depth to which sunlight can penetrate lakes in sufficient intensities to allow photosynthesis to occur.  Additionally, DOM acts  as a sunscreen protecting fish, for instance, from ultraviolet radiation.  In wastewater treatment, DOM can interact with chlorine to create disinfection byproducts.   
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Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) Lab, INSTAAR

ICP-MS Lab, INSTAAROne of the more recent INSTAAR facilities to be established is the ICP-MS laboratory to measure trace metal concentrations. Although the lab has been used in a variety of projects, one particular research focus area for the lab is the analysis of Foraminifera. Foraminifera, or forams for short, are single-celled organisms found in all marine environments. Lab director, Dr. Tom Marchitto, has sailed the proverbial seven seas – actually just the Atlantic Ocean - in search of the remains of their calcium carbonate shells in deep sea sediment cores. He uses ICP-MS analysis to obtain information from the shells that can help reconstruct past climates. 
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Phycology Lab, INSTAAR

Phycology Lab, INSTAARWhat group of organisms generates nearly half of the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere, forms the base of many aquatic food webs, plays a significant role in biogeochemical cycling, is the primary component of some biofuels, and can be grown in zero-gravity in space with seemingly few side effects? The answer is algae, and the Phycology Lab is dedicated to the study of this diverse group of biota that can range in size from single cells to large seaweeds.
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