| Review units of measurement |
| Basic conversion-of-units calculations. |
| Types and sources of environmental pollutants. |
| Statistical data treatment, including types of error, mean, standard deviation, |
| Method to determine if differences between measurements made by different methods or from different sites, for example, are significant or are due to random error. |
| Calibration methods |
| Measures of the quality of analytical methods. |
| Convert amounts into various units, eg: moles to mass, ppm to g/l, |
| Handle basic statistical problems |
| Calculate standard deviation, determine the significance of differences in measurements or means of sets of measurements |
| Understand and be able to apply the concept of confidence level |
Work through the initial problem set, if these questions are at all difficult for you. Answers will be posted.
Dixon test for outliers revisited: See this web page for a better explanation of the test.
Homework problems and text info (Excerpts from the first chapter are posted here, in case your book is not available yet.
Also, download the CDC's new report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Read the introduction and think about how information derived from biomonitoring (analysis of blood and urine) differs from monitoring environmental systems, such as air, water and food. Are these two methods redundant or complementary? Post your thoughts on this topic to the class bulletin board. (See Course Information for directions on how to do this). Also look at Appendix A, to see what sort of analytical methods are used. We may refer to other parts of this report later in the semester, so you may want to keep a copy on your computer, to avoid downloading it again.