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

 Dianna Whitlark 8-2 February 17, 2010 Lab Report on Creek Pollution

I. Introduction In February of 2010, the Charlotte Country Day Eighth Grade class is running several experiments to see how the waste from the campus if effecting things around our campus. The purpose of this group’s experiment is to see if the Charlotte Country Day Bissel Campus is producing waste that is making its way into and around a creek located behind the campus. If the waste is found in the downstream of the creek, then it is more likely to have been produced from Charlotte Country Day’s Bissel Campus.

II. Materials · Boots · Waders · Life Vests · 12 Pink Flags (Markers) · LabQuest · Water Tester Probes · Buckets · Tape Measures · Scale · Nets

Safety Concerns: When in creek, wear waders and life vest, have adult supervision, and another person not wearing waders. Be cautious when in the woods, be careful to not disturb wildlife, and look out for any dangerous items. Be cautious when near the creek as to not fall in, or endanger anyone else by being silly, loud or involved in horseplay, and/or roughness. Dress appropriately for the outdoors. No Long jewelry, loose hair, or sandals. See safety guidelines: 1, 3, 6, 7, 12, 16, 23

III. Procedure 1. Determine four quadrants, each with the dimensions of 25 meters by 25 meters. 2. In each quadrant, identify and collect any and all waste that is found in or around the creek. 3. Weigh the trash and record the weights of the trash. 4. As well as collecting solid waste, or litter, from around the creek, also test the waters of the creek. 5.Each stream group collects one bucket of water and tests the water for Conductivity, pH levels, Nitrate, and Turbidity. 6. Record data in a graph format and write lab report. 7. Create Voicethread and comment on slides.

IV. Data


 * || 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 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">49.4 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">201.4 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Quadrant 3 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">155.1 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">7.32 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">44.5 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1500.4 ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Quadrant 4 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">108.2 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">7.37 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">54.4 || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">203.7 ||

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> V. Analysis





All of these graphs except for the Turbidity graph did not support our hypothesis because there was actually less pollution and solid waste downstream from the CCDS Bissel Campus. The first graph shows that there is less conductivity downstream from the school. The second graph was testing the pH (Acidity Level) levels, and it was lower upstream from the school which means there was more acid upstream than downstream. The third graph was showing the cloudiness of the water, which relates to the pollution, which is higher downstream from the school. Finally, the fourth graph shows the trash collected from four different quadrants, as one can see, the trash is highest in Quadrant 3 due to a piece of trash that skewed the data. However, Quadrant 1 is the highest amount of trash besides Quadrant three, which shows there is actually less trash downstream from the school.

VI. Conclusion

In conclusion, the data that was collected and recorded did not support our hypothesis which is that if there is more waste down stream from our group, then it is more llikely to have been produced from our school. However, there are a few errors in this project. One of those is that in Quadrant 3 one of the group members collected a very heavy board which skewed our data and made the amount of trash in the quadrant look signifigantly larger than the other quadrants.​ There were also challenges involved in this experiment. Some of them include that there were many days where heavy rain occurred, so the groups were not able to go and collect data from the field, there were some problems in the procedure and changes that had to be made in order to better accommodate the groups process, and once in the field and near the creek, it was difficult to spot trash, and many of the bags used from collection had holes in them. Throughout this project, the goal was to see if CCDS was producing waste that was making its way into and around the creek. However, much of the data collected, did not support that and in fact was basically the opposite of the hypothesis. There is no need for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, thus there is no solution to lower CCDS's solid waste in the creek. However, there were some articles of trash that were very likely to have come from the CCDS campus, such as a bunch of popped green and white balloons tied with silver string, so the only thing Charlotte Country Day should do is advise and warn students and faculty to be carful where their waste ends up and to make sure that it doesn't make its way to the creek and is disposed of properly.

For Voicethread, click here.