8+Science+3+Siboney's+MSW+Project

Siboney Winter 2/19/10 8-3


 * __Planner Waste Reduction__**

Voicethread link: [] Every year our school provided at least 480 students with planners. These planners are used until the end of the year and then thrown in the trash. This produces a lot of waste from our campus. This year 511 planners have been sold to students. Each Planner weights 333.7 grams and that times 511 would be 170,521 grams of waste for this year. Emily and I believe if we get students to rely on Bucsnet instead of using their planners to record homework we would reduce 376 pounds of waste.
 * Introduction:**

**Safety Concerns**
 * Materials:**
 * Planners
 * Computers
 * Scale
 * Book store records
 * Students in the middle school
 * Survey Monkey
 * Don’t pick up the scale without using both hands because it could fall on your toe, also don’t play around with them so they don’t break as well. Rule #7 Be prepared for your work in the laboratory. Read all procedures thoroughly before entering the laboratory. Horseplay, practical jokes, and pranks are dangerous and prohibited.
 * Do not drink near the computer because if you spilt your drink you could break the computer and electrocute yourself. Rule #5 Do not eat food, drink beverages, or chew gum in the laboratory. Do not use laboratory glassware containers for food or beverages.
 * Make sure you do not drop your laptop when putting it back in the shelves. Rule #9 Keep aisles clear.

**Procedure:** 1) Emily and I went to the Book Store and found out how many planners are bought on average each year. 2) We figured out with how many extra planners were bought that were not from the beginning of the year. 3) We then figured out how much of the planners we use is recyelable, and figured out how much waste they produce each year. 4) We then created a survey on Monkey Survery's. 5) We sent the survey to Mr. Keilty to send out to all middle school students. 6) We researched other options that produce less waste to see if recyclable planners would be better for our school. 7) Found out if a recyclable planner could be customized with the CCDS logo/colors or if we could change the original planner to recyclable by removing the plastic rings. 8) Found out how much waste we would save by using recyclable planners. 9) Talked to the board members of our school about our idea to see if we could switch over to recyclable planers.

IV: Bucsnet vs. Planners DV: Amount of waste from planners CG: using planners to check hw EG: using only Bucsnet In our survey we asked 5 questions. below in the chart are our results. For number three 23.20 was the most common answer and the no colum is used to represent the other amount of days people chose.
 * Data:**
 * 1) Do you write your HW in your planner? yes or no
 * 2) Do you check Bucsnet for HW? yes or no
 * 3) How often do you check Bucsnet each week? 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, 7 days, or 8 days?
 * 4) Could you stop using your planner and use Bucsnet instead? yes or no
 * 5) In order to reduce non recyclable waste, would you be willing to use planner paper in your binder without having the hard cover and rings


 * **questions** || **yes** || **no** ||
 * **question 1** || 94.00 || 6.00 ||
 * **question 2** || 67.00 || 33.00 ||
 * **question 3** || 23.20 || 87.80 ||
 * **question 4** || 32.00 || 68.00 ||
 * **question 5** || 57.00 || 43.00 ||

Other data we collected was that from the bookstore 511 planners have been sold this year. Each planner weighs 333.7 grams. When we multiplied that by 511 we got 170520.7 grams. So that big number represents the amount of waste we produce from using planners.

**Analysis:**

In our Analysis it shows some of the data we collected in pie graph form. The first graph shows that 94% of students writes there homework in their planners. Then in our next pie graph it shows that 67% of students don't check bucsnet and 33% do. The third pie graph shows that majority of students check bucsnet 3 or more times a week. 57% of students would be willing to use planner paper in their binders without having hard cover and rings. Then on the last graph it shows that 68% of students would be willing to only use Bucsnet instead of a paper planner.


 * Conclusion:**

Our data did not support our hypothesis wanting to find an alternative to using the non recyclable planners. In our survey majority of the students were willing to use planners without the hard covers and plastic rings, but were not willing to only switch over to Bucsnet and not have a paper planner. Our hypothesis said that students would be willing too switch over to Bucsnet. This would allow our school to reduce its amount of waste and save energy. There were no human errors. Our experimental errors that we couldn't use all of our responces because the free survey would only take up too 100 responces. The only challanges we had during our project was finding out how many planners were sold from the bookstore and waiting for the 1st 100 students to repy to the email with the survey on it. We had to wait for them before we could start conducting more more research. Our school will more likely switch over to only Bucsnet in upcoming years, but until then we could starting to transition to a more eco friendly planner.