Tampa Wastewater employees Farzaneh Hassani (left) and Eric Weiss (right) assisted with the donation of 22 boxes of lab glassware to local high schools. High School Science Supervisor Lauren King (center) accepted a portion of the donation on behalf of Hillsborough County Public Schools.

Tampa Wastewater Dept donates glassware to local schools

Tampa Wastewater Dept donates glassware to local schools

As the new school year begins, the City of Tampa Wastewater Department is donating thousands of dollars' worth of science equipment to local high schools to further STEM learning.

Approximately 22 boxes of glassware, including jars, test tubes, and biological oxygen demand (BOD) bottles, are being donated to science programs in the Hillsborough and Pinellas County School Districts, along with several small instruments, microscopes and microscope lenses.

Much of the glassware has been in storage for decades and was previously used for algae testing in Tampa Bay. Due to the maturity of the glassware, it no longer met the standards of the City of Tampa Wastewater Department’s accredited lab. Faced with the choice of destroying lab glassware that has an estimated current value of $30,000, Farzaneh Hassani, Supervisor of the Environmental Lab at the Howard F. Curren Advanced Treatment Plant, came up with the novel idea to donate these items to our local school districts.

“Science is the foundation of many careers that these students will one day take,” said Hassani. “Hopefully, teachers will use the glassware in their classes to educate our future teachers, engineers, chemists, doctors, or even astronauts.”

Eric Weiss, Director of Wastewater for the City of Tampa, added, “To continue to provide outstanding service to our residents, we need to do our part to help develop an interest in STEM professions among the students who will one day lead our City. This donation of laboratory equipment will help us and local schools achieve that mission.”

The donated glassware will be used by 9-12 graders in Hillsborough and Pinellas County science programs.

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