Semester Review

This semester my driving question was, “How can I experiment and figure out a way to cut down on pollution in freshwater areas like lakes and ponds?”. I feel that I was able to almost finish answering that question this semester. The part of my project that I am most proud of is sticking to my project and pushing to find the answer even after my experiment failed. It made me feel accomplished to stick to one thing for the entire semester and to keep persevering.

If I could do my project over again I would re-do my experiment. I feel like if I would have used a different type of container that my results would have turned out the way I expected and that my experiment would have worked. In this project I learned that I should try new things more often because at the beginning of the school year I didn’t even want to be in the class. This class has opened me up to try new things and I am going to try to keep that going into the future.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

January 11, 2019 0

Progress Before Christmas

In the past couple of weeks I have made lots of progress. I emailed Mr. Pate about why my project didn’t work and he emailed his sources at ECU. I am now emailing them to see if they have any suggestions to help me with my research. My experiment failing was a major setback but I am managing to continue by trying to figure out where I went wrong. Hopefully I can figure it out and release my findings to researchers and people concerned about their water.

I plan to share my findings to my target audience through my blog. Over break I need to finish up my project by finalizing my annotated bibliography and getting my board ready.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

December 17, 2018 2

Third Passion Project Update

My progress on my last project has come to a roadblock. In the second 6 weeks I conducted my experiment on activated charcoal and the pond water samples. I just received the results back from when I sent the samples to the AG Center and it ended up that the results didn’t end up how I predicted they would. In fact both nitrogen and pH levels went up significant amounts. I don’t know what I am going to do for my final project yet. If I find a way that my experiment can help people with research I will share it with them, through them seeing the blog and getting in contact with me through the blog.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

December 10, 2018 1

Last Passion Project

For this last 6 weeks my driving question, “How can I experiment and figure out a way to cut down on pollution in freshwater areas?”, is staying the same. My “why” for all of my passion projects have been that I like to fish and water pollution makes it hard to fish and it harms the fish and organisms that live in the freshwater habitats.

My SMART goal for this 6 weeks is to create a presentation that shows my findings from my research and experiment, that also shows whether activated charcoal works at soaking up pollution. I can measure whether I meet my goal by whether I finish my project by the end of the 6 weeks.

My biggest obstacle will definitely be time management with my results taking a while to get back. I plan on getting past this by planning ahead and sticking to my plan. `

Thanks for reading, Trace.

November 27, 2018 2

Second Gallery Walk Reflection

The gallery walk went well. In the rehearsals before the gallery walk, I was working on not reading from my board and making more eye contact with the audience. I felt like I was able to make more eye contact with the audience, so I feel like I got better at my presentation skills. I didn’t really learn anything from my feedback. Most of the feedback was just encouraging me to keep going with my project.

My main obstacle for this 6 weeks project was, like last 6 weeks, time management. I felt like I was able to manage this by planning ahead and using my planner more. If I could redo this 6 weeks I would probably plan to do my experiment and submit the results much earlier and not procrastinate. In this 6 weeks I learned that I don’t really get nervous over public speaking. I think that I can use that to better approach the future gallery walks. I learned that others don’t judge about my project as much as I thought they might.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

November 16, 2018 1

Wrapping Up the 6 Weeks

In this 6 weeks my driving question of, “How can I experiment and figure out a way to reduce freshwater pollution from agricultural runoff ?”, stayed the same. My progress towards my end goal is right on track with me showing the details of my project as my presentation this 6 weeks. Next 6 weeks I plan to come to my final conclusion of my project by seeing if the activated charcoal actually made a difference in the water samples.

To get ready for the gallery walk I need to prioritize how I want to explain my experiment and getting my presentation board ready. I would rate my planning about a 8 out of 10 because I tend to plan everything out good but my execution of the plan isn’t the greatest. I usually end up procrastinating until the very last second. My biggest obstacle of this six weeks has been not being able to control how long it takes for my water samples to come back. I am managing this however by trying to plan ahead so I can try to meet my deadlines.

-Picture of my experiment

Thanks for reading, Trace.

November 5, 2018 3

Infographic

To support my project in the gallery walk I made an infographic in Canva. Its purpose is to use facts on nutrient pollution that I found on the EPA’s website.

It also gave some basic background information like, “What types of water are affected?”, to help my viewers understand my project a little better. I also included some facts like, “78% of US Coastal Waters are affected by excess algae growth.”, to show the relevance of issue.

I am hoping that I can use this as a display to put on my project board to make my presentation more eye catching. I will also be able to use it to more easily and simply educate my audience.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

October 30, 2018 1

Project Update

My driving question is, “How can I experiment and figure out a way to reduce freshwater pollution from agricultural runoff?”, which is a continuation from last 6 weeks. My driving question can apply to people locally and people all around the world because contaminated water is everywhere. I think that my problem could be different in other places because people in other places could be worried about the water they are drinking, not the fish’s water.

For that reason I think that the solution for my problem could be modified to treat water for drinking and cooking in a way that is consumable for humans. I think that thinking globally can help solve local problems because I can research and use technology and solutions from other places to combine them into my research here. The internet is a big factor of communication for research and from looking at sources from other places I have learned a lot about my solution here.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

October 24, 2018 0

Second Six Weeks Project

In this blog I am going to be going into more detail about my project for this six weeks. I am planning to conduct the experiments I planned on last six weeks as step one for this project. I just recently received the results for Test #1 on Monday, October 8th. I am now in the process of comparing these samples to what healthy water samples should look like.

I am also in the process of collecting more water samples, from the same sources to experiment with. In the experiment I am going to add fertilizers and activated charcoal to see what levels go up or down. If the results on the samples come back before the end of the 6 weeks, my project will probably look some thing like comparing the results to healthy results. If I can squeeze my conclusion of, “Does activated charcoal soak up chemicals found in agricultural runoff ?”, I might finish my entire project this 6 weeks.

However the time it takes for the results on the samples to come back one of the obstacles I will have to overcome. I plan to do the experiments early and send in the samples ASAP to try to have them in time. However with the 2+weeks it takes for the samples to get back I don’t think I will be able to finish the project this 6 weeks.

Thanks for reading my update on my Passion Project, Trace.

October 15, 2018 0

Second Six Weeks Passion Project

For this next 6 week’s project I am going to be continuing my plan from the last 6 weeks. However for this 6 weeks I need to contact a human resource. I am planning on contacting a specialist or scientist in the Environmental Science field. I am looking at different websites that are on the same topics as I am researching and looking for people to contact.

I am hoping that my product will be a presentation of the different levels of chemicals and minerals in the water. I will also compare these levels to what healthy levels should be. My target audience for this project could be a general audience of people who want to improve water quality in the places around them. For this project I am focused on improving the quality of my research and when presenting, not reading from my board the whole time.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

October 8, 2018 0