Seacat Options

[Vince Porter]

Dear Mrs. Kane,

My name is Vince Porter. I am in Mr Stumph's 1st period science class. I read the article about the sea cat. Was it cool? How often did you use it? How did it collect minarals? How often did you use it?[I am sure you are having fun. I am looking forward to meeting you face to face. Sincerely, Vince porter :)email]Porterhaus5@at&t.net[/email]

[Maggie_Kane]

Dear Mrs. Kane,

My name is Vince Porter. I am in Mr Stumph's 1st period science class. I read the article about the sea cat. Was it cool? How often did you use it? How did it collect minarals? How often did you use it?[I am sure you are having fun. I am looking forward to meeting you face to face. Sincerely, Vince porter :)email]Porterhaus5@at&t.net[/email]

Hi Vince! How cool that you wrote these questions about the seacat. It is a very cool devise. We have to be very careful to tie a good knot on it becasue it costs many thousands of dollars! When ever we lower anything into the water we always check our knot first. There are several instrument at the bottom of Lake Linne (only one from this year and it was not a big or expensive one, thank goodness). Lets see if I can answer your questions:

Useing the Seacat is fun. First we turn it on and lower it into the water for about 40 seconds and let it start reading. Then we quickly but carefully lower it down to the very bottom. Then we bring it all the way up in a smooth but quick way. Then we turn it off. All the while it has been in the water it is taking in samples through tubes and analysing the chemistry. Then, we download this into the computer and Vavavooom! we have a data page! The software on the computer can then make a neat graph to show how temperature changes with depth, how conductivity (the amount of free ions in the water) changes with depth or temperature, etc...

We don't really see what type of minerals is in the water but how much sediment there is. THere is a tube with a little eyeball that "looks" across it's length. How well it sees tells it how clear the water is. If it is hard to see, then it knows that there is a lot of sediment in the water.

We use the seacat every day or two. we want to see how things change in the lake as the weather changes from day to day. Mr. Stumpf has some weather data we sent him. We have a really neat weather station here that we use to see what is going on in the atmosphere on a daily basis. We use daily weather data to help us understand why the lake data looks the way it does.

Thanks for your questions, and I can't wait to meet you too! Thanks, M. Kane