8+Science+2+Joseph's+MSW+Project

Voicethread linkVoicethread linkI. Introduction Recently in Science class, Mr. Keilty introduced a new project that the entire 8th grade would be doing. The project had to involve testing the amount of municipal solid waste that the Middle School campus produces, and figuring out a way to improve it. (For example, composting, recycling, or properly disposing of waste.) Our group consisted of the students who wanted to test how much of the Middle School's municipal solid waste ended up in the areas around the creek. Our plan was to stake out the areas that we would be taking water samples from, collecting trash, and gathering data, so that we could have a good area to test how much waste is not properly disposed. We hypothesized that if you move further south down stream, then more waste and trash will be found and collected.  II. Procedure 1. Gather Materials (waders, nets, boots, scales, and tape measure) 2. Split up into three groups; one to test upstream, downstream, and the water itself. 3. Measure three rectangles 25m, by 25m. 3. Put all trash that is found into a trashbag. 4. Take water samples from all three of the plotted areas. 5. Use water testing devices to test turbitity, Nitrate, pH, and conductivity. 6. Record and graph results. 7. Take all collected trash from the quadrants, sort them in the quadrant in which they were found, and weigh the amount of trash. 8. Record data. 9.Create a data table of all of the collected data. 10. Graph all of the water testing data, and the weight of the trash data.

Saftey Guidelines 21. Anytime chemicals, heat, or glassware are used, students will wear laboratory googles 29. All chemicals in laboratory are to be considered dangerous

III. Materials 1. Boots 2. Waders 3. 16 Pink Flags (Markers) 4. 2-3 Nets 5. Tape measure 6. Buckets 7. Beakers 8. LabQuests 9. Trash bags 10. Scale

V. Data  IV. Analysis 
 * Stream Graphs ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * || Conductivity(uS/cm) || pH || Nitrate(Mg/L) || Turbidity (NTU) || Trash(g) ||
 * Quadrant 1 || 279.5 || 7.02 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">46.7 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">709.6 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Quadrant 2 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">152 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7.38 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">49.4 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">201.4 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Quadrant 3 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">155.1 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7.32 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">44.5 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1500.4 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Quadrant 4 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">108.2 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7.37 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">54.4 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">203.7 ||





<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In our experiment some trends were found that supported our hypothesis. Others did not have a trend.The conductivity level of the water downstream was signifigantly lower than the conductivity level of the water upstream. This shows that the amount of waste and pollution was lower than the water that is upstream, because it has less particles to conduct energy through. The level of acid in the water, pH, showed little differences among eachother. The level of acid in the water was slightly lower downstream, than upstream. Condrictory to our hypothesis, the results showed that less pollution was appearing further downstream. The turbidity level (how dense or murky the water is) increased as we moved further down the stream, showing the amounts of pollution were higher downstream. The trash data showed no pattern and did not support our hypothesis very well.

V. Conclusion

Our hypothesis was not supported because some of our data said that pollution increased as the quadrants were farther north. Voicethread here- []