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• Landon Villarreal • IDRA Newsletter • August 2021 •

Hello, my name is Landon Villarreal, and I am a Chief Science Officer at CAST Med High School. For the initial action plan, the other CSO at my school and I wanted to host a demonstration involving STEM to CAST Med Students. Fortunately, our school was hosting a health and happiness conference, and we took the opportunity to incorporate our action plan idea by taking a part of the conference to demonstrate a water purification process through the use of electrocoagulation, which uses electricity instead of chemicals to remove contaminants from water.

Alongside this demonstration, Ryan Beltrán, the founder of Elequa, a non-profit organization focused on education through water innovation, provided water kits for all the students and explained the process of electrocoagulation, and how it can be used as a purification process for water.

Learn More about the Texas Chief Science Officer Program & How to Bring it to Your School

When deciding how to present our STEMonstration, the main challenge we faced was trying to ensure that all students could be reached in our activity due to a large portion being virtual at the time. In order to do this, we broadcasted the entire demonstration via Zoom to all CAST Med Students. All in-person students were provided with their own water kits to perform the experiment as they watched through Zoom. Students at home also were able to obtain a water kit from the school if they choose.

All CAST Med Students were able to experience the process of electrocoagulation in a fun and interactive way, and Ryan Beltrán was able to present the message of Elequa and reach many students.

Landon Villarreal is attends CAST Med High School in San Antonio ISD.

[©2021, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the August 2021 IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]