Audio - Maxine speaks about what will be covered in  her course.  

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Maxine's comments: This is EnvS 541, Sampling and Analysis of Environmental Contaminants.

We're going to be looking at some of the statistical issues related to sampling and analysis and approaching questions such as: How do you layout a sampling plan? What kind of organization or pattern do you use? How many data points should you take? What are the issues related to sampling? We're also going to be looking at questions related to doing data analysis once you have the chemical results from those samples. How do you go about organizing that data, and understanding that data so that you understand the contamination that exists, and can use that information in making remediation decisions.

By the end of the course I think everyone will be very comfortable with basic statistical techniques, and be able to do simple analysis. You'll also be exposed to some of the more sophisticated techniques and know when to seek help to use those. This is an important topic in environmental contamination because the decisions that we make must be based on the real data that exists. We need to get good data, and make good decisions.

Monitoring system design, sampling procedures, RCRA/CERCLA sampling, quality assurance data quality objectives.