8+Science+4+MAckenzie's+MSW+Project

Section 8-4 3/2/10 Printed Paper MSW Project!​ [|VoiceThread]
 * Mackenzie Gilley

Introduction:** We were assigned to do a lab project on MSW by Mr. Keilty and Mrs. Walthall. So, we got into groups and continued our investigation on MSW. Each and every day there are tons of wasted pieces of paper printed (MSW). America is carelessly wasting printed paper whether they know it or not. What is MSW you ask? Municipal Solid Waste, also known as MSW, is waste that is produced by homes and businesses. These wasted pieces of paper, when not recycled, contribute to the increasing amount of waste that are inserted into a landfill, or burnt by an incinerator which puts toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. This later contributes to global warming. Because of the obscene amount of printed pieces of paper that are being wasted, our group wanted to decrease the number of pieces of paper printed at Charlotte Country Day School. One way to do this is to put up signs around the computers (in the Media Center and the Computer Lab) to remind the staff and students to be aware of how much paper they are printing. The signs also tell staff and studens to print on both sides and to print as little as possible. If more people become aware of how much waste they are producing by reading the signs, then the amount of paper printed and wasted will decrease.


 * Materials:**
 * Magic Markers
 * Tape Rolls
 * 25 Sheets of Paper
 * Scissors
 * Printer
 * Media Center
 * Computer Lab
 * Printers
 * Laptop to Record Data
 * Excell

Safety Guidelines: 1. Be careful not to get a papercut #25.

Safety Concerns: 1. Papercuts.

1. Gather markers, tape rolls, 25 sheets of paper, and scissors in order to contrust signs 2. Cut the sheets of paper in half that say "Think Before You Print", "Don't Click the Print Button More Than Once", "Print on Both Sides", etc. 3. Store the materials for later tests. 4. Begin the control groups testing on Wednesday (17th) morning at 7:55. 5. Check to see how many pieces of paper were printed by the people at Charlotte Country Day Middle School on Wednesday at 3:15. (Record data on data table) 6. Tape the signs in between all the computers and printers in computer labs and the media center on Wednesday at 3:15 7. On Friday, check how many pieces of paper were printed on Thursday (18th) afternoon at 7:55. (Record data on data table) 8. Take down the signs on Thursday at 3:15. 9. Repeat steps 4-8 on the Wednesday and Thursday AFTER the 17th. 10. Make sure all data is recorded.
 * Procedure:**

Control Group- The group with no signs on the computers and printers. Experimental Group- The group with the signs on the computers and printers. Independent Variable- The amount of paper printed. Dependent Variable- The amount of signs on the computers and printers.


 * Data:**
 * || Day 1 (without signage) || Day 2 (with signage) || Day 3 (without signage) || Day 4 (with signage) ||
 * Amount of Paper Printed (in pages) || 49 || 142 || 482 || 345 ||


 * Analysis:**



Although our group graph doesn't show any trends, it shows that the amount of paper printed in the Media Center and the Computer Lab differs every day. This graph shows that on days one and two, there was an accumulated amount of 191, while on days three and four there was an accumulated amount of 827. We found out that there was a tiny drop in the amount of paper printed when you add the days with signage (day two and four) which was 487 pieces of paper printed. While on days without signage there was 531 pieces of paper printed. Students may have had projects that they needed to work on the speciphic days that we put signs up. If our group had more time to take this project a bit further, it would be more likely that our graph would have more trends then the current one.


 * Conclusion:**

Our group hypothesis was if more people become aware of how much waste they are producing by reading the signs, then the amount of paper printed and wasted will decrease. The group hypothesis that we made wasn't supported due to lack of preparation and ignorance, in my opinion. Instead of taking two weeks to collect data, one week without the signs and one week with the signs, our group came up with a different method of collecting data which was collecting one day's worth of data without the signs, then the next day with the signs, then two more days without and with the signs. it was not until after we collected the data that we realized this wasn't the best way to perform our experiment which we later found out was a experimental error. A human error is that we didn't have enough signs to put up on the last day with signs. This most likely lead to staff and students not getting the message to conserve paper. Just like our group graph shows, the data we collected isn't consistent in showing a decrease in the amount of paper printed like we had all hoped for, therefore, our hypothesis wasn't supported. Some challenges my group and I faced when collecting the data was attempting to read the complex computer print out that stated the amount of paper that was printed the following day. The piece of paper had many numbers and dates which made it difficult to comprehend. Another challenge our group had was knowing when to take down the informative signs at the right times so we wouldn't make any errors that might've lead to a change in data. Although our group hypothesis wasn't supported, I still feel strongly about taking our idea into consideration for the long run of Charlotte Country Day Middle School. If our group had the chance to perform our experiment over again, we would've had the background knowledge to fix the issues we had which most likely would' result in less paper printed.