On Thursday, April 27, 2006 the ALSC staff participated in the annual DEC "Take Our Future To Work" day. ALSC's event for this fun and educational day was to showcase the new laboratory facility. We couldn't have hosted twenty seven children and adults in the old lab.

Chemist Theresa Cleary and assistant chemist Sara Burke led the participants on a comprehensive tour of the facility. Participants learned about water sampling and what happens to each sample as it moves through the lab. Some activities included exploration of acidity and the pH scale using both pH meters and purple cabbage water, a natural plant pH indicator. It was interesting to see how baking soda and vinegar solutions caused different color reactions with the water indicator, and then get accurate readings from the pH meters. The children were also able to observe a basic chromatograph produced by the instrument set up to analyze for aluminum. Additionally, participants were introduced to other instruments used daily by laboratory staff.

With the remaining time, field operations manager Sue Capone showed interested participants pH data points on the computer and equipment used by ALSC field staff.