Integration of a Real-Time Water and Weather Monitoring System into a Hydrology Course

This paper discusses the integration of a real-time 24/7 water and weather monitoring lab, LabVIEW Enabled Watershed Assessment System (LEWAS), into a senior level Hydrology course at Virginia Tech. The LEWAS uniquely integrates LabVIEW’s data acquisition capability with the water and weather hardware to sense water and weather data in real-time from a local creek that flows through the campus of the university. The goal is to enhance student learning by incorporating LEWAS-based hands-on modules. Three learning modules were developed and implemented: (i) Storm Characteristics Module, (ii) Land Cover-Water Quality Correlation Module, and (iii) Watershed Wiki Module. Implementation details of the modules are discussed. The Wiki module was the most interesting LEWAS-based assignment which entailed assigning teams of students throughout the semester to visit the LEWAS outdoor site and write daily reports on the class Wiki about the unit’s performance and the monitoring results. The groups acted as the watershed assessment team for an assigned week, preparing data tables and graphs for weather, flow, and water quality. Two of the most important advantages of the LEWAS are that it is monitoring the watershed in which the classroom is located, and that the data is webaccessible. Challenges encountered in implementing the LEWAS are discussed. Lastly, student perceptions are documented using pre-and post-test survey instruments. This work is supported under the NSF Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) Type I Program.