Purpose
Today you are going to analyze nitrate water quality data from an Iowa water collection site and determine how often the water exceeds the nitrate health limit (of 10 mg/L). Your class will then come together to plot your water collection sites and their corresponding frequency of unhealthy nitrate levels over the year on a digital map of Iowa to better understand where placing water treatment facilities may be most helpful.

Using Computational Tools
Once computational scientists have collected data relevant to the question they are studying, they need to analyze this data and be able to report their findings to a larger audience. Instead of having to use a calculator and pencil to analyze each data point by hand, computational tools such as Excel and Google Sheets are able to help scientists analyze their data both quickly and accurately.