Andrea Bolks , CFAN 2009
Mediation of Lead Using EDTA
Major
Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Science
Mentors
Jay Bell, Soil and Water Science
Brief Bio
I like playing softball. I like all kinds of music.
Future Plans
I am going to graduate. I am going find a job after I work, and eventually go to graduate school.
Why Research?
I am very interested in how research works. I though this would be a good opportunity.
What Did I Get from Research?
I learned a lot of thing about research. I learned about the process of research, and how long it takes to plan everything. I also leaned how to overcome obstacles.
How Did I Start?
I had heard about UROP, and thought it was something I wanted to do. I went to the faculty mentor that I knew and we talked about the process.
My Advice for Another Student:
Talk to different faculty that has a project to do before choosing a project. Talk to some people to get a better understanding of what research is like.
Research Summary
Lead in ground soil is a bad pollutant. It is also hard to get out of the soil. They use EDTA to try to get lead out of the soil. It loosens up the lead in the soil. I used EDTA on soil while growing corn in that soil. We wanted the corn to take up the lead from the soil. I was also testing to see how much lead went into the corn instead of the ground water. We found with using EDTA that the corn did take up some of the lead but a lot still went into the ground water.