About the Course

The course provides participants with an understanding of the rules and regulations relevant to environmental monitoring, the concept and importance of representative environmental sampling; standard sampling and analytical procedures; use of common instrumentation for sample collection; quality assurance and control for monitoring; proper documentation techniques, and sampling designs and development of a sampling plan with health and safety features.

The students learn in multiple learning activity formats, including recorded lectures, video demonstration of sampling techniques, reading materials, online discussions, assignments, team projects, and a field trip with hands-on demonstrations. The students not only learn the “what and hows,” but most importantly, the “whys” as they relate to sampling and testing procedures. This will help the students who may be conducting sampling and testing for their research projects, as well as in performing these tasks in their professional career. Generation of data of acceptable and documented quality helps assure the reliability of the data that could be used in forming conclusions or critical decisions.

This course is a hybrid course. There is a weekend field trip component at UF Whitney Lab in St. Augustine, FL.