Student Research and Job Placement in Water Resources

Every student majoring in Water Resources designs and conducts a two-semester research project. Here are the titles of some representative projects:

  • A Study of the Sugar Creek Watershed, as Part of the Heidelberg College Curriculum-based Long-term Watershed Study Model
  • An Erosion Rate Survey of Rock Creek, Tiffin, Ohio
  • A Comparison of the Macroinvertebrate Communities of Wolf Creek, and How Stream Alterations May Have Caused Changes in Diversity
  • A Fecal Coliform Characterization Study on the Sandusky River, Rock Creek and Gibson Run
  • Edge versus Middle Zooplankton Communities in a Quarry System
  • Comparison of the Macroinvertebrate and Crayfish Communities of Two Ecoregions: the Western Allegheny Plateau and the Eastern Corn Belt Plains
  • The Effect of Burrowing Mayflies (Hexagenia spp.) on Chemical and Physical Properties of the Overlying Water
  • The Decomposition Rates of Maple, Oak, Pine, and Willow Leaves and How Each Affects the pH of a Stream System
  • A Comparative Study of Groundwater Chemistry along a Flow Path in Northwest Ohio

With the extensive field and laboratory training Water Resources students receive, they have had excellent success competing for jobs in a variety of environmental fields and for graduate teaching and research assistantships. The list below shows the wide variety of entry positions obtained by our students.

  • County Soil and Water Conservation District technician
  • Master's program in Geology at Wright State University, Ohio
  • Quality Assurance/Quality Control Chemist with Church & Dwight, Ohio
  • Master's program in Fisheries Ecology, University of Michigan
  • Master's program in Wetlands Ecology, The Ohio State University
  • Master's program in Agriculture, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
  • Master's program in Natural Resources, The Ohio State University
  • Field and laboratory technician with EnviroTech, Columbus, Ohio
  • Chemical manager, PPG Industries, Toledo, Ohio
  • Health data and evaluation specialist, Sandusky County Health Department, Ohio
  • Law School in Environmental Law
  • Laboratory chemist, Vickery Environmental Inc., Ohio
  • Water quality and industrial surveillance investigator, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
  • COSI Columbus, outreach program specialist
  • Internship with Ohio Department of Natural Resources