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

Jonny Plepler 3-3-10 8-2 Affects of Bissel Campus on the Creek Introduction

Introduction

We were given the task of finding one environmental issue on campus involving waste and waste disposal. Waste disposal is a very important issue that needs to be addressed before resources run out and/or there is no space left to put it. My group decided to record the amount of waste and water pollution in the creek before and after it reaches our campus. The purpose of this is to see if our school pollutes the creek. If the quadrant is farther South, then the amount of trash/pollution will increase.

Materials

1. Waders 2. Water quality sensors 3. Boots 4. Scales 5. Tape Measurers 6. 16 Markers 7. Life Vests 8. Bucket/Garbage bag 9. GPS Marker 10. Lab Quest Saftey Concerns 1. Biological or Toxic Waste 2. Sharp Objects in waste

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

Procedure

1. Gather materials (waders, boots, scales, water quality sensors, and tape measurer) 2. Measure four quadrants 25m by 25m, one upstream, two in the middle, and one downstream 3. Collect trash in all quadrants 4. Weigh trash in Grams 5. Collect water samples from all of the quadrants 6. Use water quality sensors to measure turbidity, conductivity, nitrate, and pH 7. Compare data gathered in the four quadrants

Data


 * Stream Graphs ||  ||   ||   ||   ||
 * || Conductivity(uS/cm) || pH || Nitrate(Mg/L) || Turbidity (NTU) || Trash(g) ||
 * Quadrant 1 || 279.5 || 7.02 || 1 || 46.7 || 709.6 ||
 * Quadrant 2 || 152 || 7.38 || 1 || 49.4 || 201.4 ||
 * Quadrant 3 || 155.1 || 7.32 || 1 || 44.5 || 1500.4 ||
 * Quadrant 4 || 108.2 || 7.37 || 1 || 54.4 || 203.7 ||

Analysis: One of the major trends in the graph, is that turbidity increases as the quadrants location is more south. Turbidity is the amount of matter (not including water) floating around in the water. This is true because our campus increases the amout of waste going into the creek. The amount of trash graph is inconclusive and shows no consistent trend. The conductivity and acidity of the water increases as the quadrants locations are more north. This is not supporting our hypothesis and does not show that our campus pollutes the stream further Conclusion Our hypothesis was not supported because some of our data said that pollution increased as the quadrants were farther north.