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Chris Cronnon
Linda Frost
UHON 2000 - 0
17 November 2016
Conference Presentation Proposal and Information
How Healthy Are Our Local Freshwater Sources?
Chris Cronnon
My research project was to determine whether or not the Chattanooga Creek,
Chickamauga Creek, and Tennessee River were impaired, and to teach others about the
importance of freshwater pollution. There are thousands of impaired freshwater sources
in the United States. Impaired waters have an impact on the quality of our drinking water,
quality of the fish we eat, freshwater ecosystems, and many other factors. For my
research project, I took one water sample from each of the three locations once a week
for ten weeks. On the day I took the sample, I would test the sample with a freshwater
testing kit. I tested for the levels of pH, ammonia nitrate, nitrate nitrogen, alkalinity,
carbon dioxide, chloride, hardness, and dissolved oxygen. The results that I found where
that all three freshwater sources had decently healthy levels in all of these tested
categories. The only two levels that were a little higher than the healthy range were
carbon dioxide and hardness, but it was not at a dangerous amount. While I was
conducting my research, I made a presentation about freshwater pollution, how to prevent
it, and why it should be a concern. I presented this information to eleven classes ranging
from second grade to twelfth grade, and to an audience consisting of the Walker County
superintendent, school principals, and other students and faculty.

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Call For Papers
31st Annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research
University of Memphis
April 6-8, 2017
Abstracts due by Dec 2, 2016
http://www.cur.org/ncur_2017/
The deadline to submit your abstract is December 2; however, I encourage you to submit
early because space and funds for UTC students is limited. After you submit your
abstract (using the instructions below), please email amy-campbell@utc.edu so we can
plan for the event.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACTS:
1. Click on the above link
2. Click "NCUR Account Portal" on the left-hand side of the page
3. Click "Create an Account Now" on the right-hand side of the page
4. Create an account
5. Submit your abstract
We hope you will take advantage of this special presentation opportunity.
NCUR 2017 Abstract Guidelines
Please Note: The abstract word limit is now 300 words. This limit is more in keeping with
the abstract guidelines for other conferences and academic societies. We are unable to
make exceptions to this word limit.
All abstracts must be submitted online through the link on the NCUR 2017 homepage.
The link will be open October 3 through December 2. All primary submitters will need to
create a new NCUR account. (You can do this by clicking on the "NCUR Account Portal"
from the navigation bar on the homepage.) Note to students who have submitted to
NCUR in previous years: A new NCUR account must be created each year. Information
does not carry over from year to year.
Notification will begin around January 23, 2017, and continue through mid-February.
Should your abstract be accepted, you may register for the conference using the same
login information. Registration is scheduled to open January 23, 2017.

Abstracts should:
Clearly state the central research question and/or purpose of the project.
Provide brief, relevant scholarly or research context (no actual citations required) that
demonstrate its attempt to make a unique contribution to the area of inquiry.
Provide a brief description of the research methodology.
State conclusions or expected results and the context in which they will be discussed.
Include text only (no images or graphics)

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Be well-written and well-organized.

Other formatting guidelines:
References are allowed within abstracts, but not required.
The form will not process all formatting and special characters (e.g., scientific symbols).
Use plain text format for your abstract. There is space in the form to include a link to
online documentation, formulas, images, music files, etc. in support of your submission.
You may use this space to provide a link to a location to view your abstract in its original
form.
Abstracts are usually 200-300 words long with no paragraph breaks. MAXIMUM
LENGTH = 300 WORDS!
Have the following information available when submitting your abstract:
Name and e-mail address for each faculty mentor and co-author
Undergraduate Research Office Coordinator (UROC) name, e-mail address, and phone
number
If you do not have an UROC then provide the information for whomever is the point of
contact at your institution
Presentation type: oral, poster, visual arts, or performing arts
Field of study (See below for the complete list.)
Two abstracts per primary author are permitted. There is no limit on the number of
abstracts submitted per co-author.
All abstracts will undergo a rigorous review by a panel of faculty reviewers. Abstract
reviewers will evaluate submissions based on the criteria listed above and will assess
overall merit within the context of the specific academic discipline.
Note: The title and author(s) of your abstract will appear EXACTLY as they are entered
in the abstract submission form. Please double check punctuation and spelling before
submitting.
Contact your mentor or your institutions Writing Center about how to write a
competitive abstract. See the website for the Field of Study options.