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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Project

This first six weeks Passion Project didn’t go exactly as I planned. When I first came up with my idea to focus on water pollution, I thought that it would be a quick process. Thinking back time was my biggest constraint this six weeks. I had originally planned on finishing the whole project this six weeks.

That didn’t work out however because of the fact that it takes 2 weeks for the water sample results to come in. After I figured that out I changed my approach to this 6 weeks. I decided that I would present a timeline with my plan for the experiments this 6 weeks, and then conduct the experiments in the next 6 weeks.

The hardest part of the project was probably getting the water samples. One of the samples was easy to get as I could walk to the pond behind my house, but the other was more difficult as I had to drive to get it. Sending the water samples in to the Ag Center was also difficult because it was hard to find someone local who could test the water.

The easiest part of the project was probably the research because I found tons of great resources without having to hunt around much. If I had a do-over of my project I would probably plan for the water samples taking longer to process, instead of trying to rush and get it all in during this 6 weeks.

My favorite part of the project was definitely being able to fish when I collected my water samples. This project taught me that I am more creative than I give myself credit for. I learned how other people don’t really care to judge you as that was one of my fears going in to the gallery walk. The next part of my project is to continue the experiments in to the next 6 weeks and see where it takes me.

Thanks for reading, Trace.

For this first 6 weeks my passion project was on water pollution.  There are many different forms of water pollution but I chose Agricultural Runoff.  I chose this particular form of pollution because in my past couple of times fishing in one of my local ponds I noticed that there was a build up of algae growth.

It seemed that every time I casted, I reeled in about 10 pounds of the algae.  So when I had to decide on an issue I wanted to fix, I decided on this.  I researched what causes excess algae growth and learned that when it rains, fertilizers can be swept up in the runoff and be deposited into waterways.

This introduces chemicals that can encourage excess algae growth.  In can result in ponds looking like this.

This is an example of an algal bloom or algae bloom. When algae grows over the surface like this it can block sunlight out from the fish and plants that grow underwater.

So I decided to do something about it.  My driving question is, “How can I experiment and figure out a way to limit agricultural runoff effects in freshwater areas of water?”.

My plan on how I am going to accomplish this is through an experiment. In my research I came across several sources that talked about how activated charcoal can “soak up” some of the chemicals found in fertilizers.

I am going to conduct several experiments on the water from 2 local ponds.  I collected one sample of water for a base test by not altering the water in any way. I called this Test #1. I sent the water to the Pitt County Ag Center where they are currently testing to find the different amounts of chemicals in the water.  I will then use activated charcoal to see what levels go up and what levels go down.  I called this Test #2.

After Test #2 I am going to introduce fertilizers to the water and then add activated charcoal to see if the chemicals can be soaked up. I’ll call this Test #3. One of the big obstacles I am facing is that it takes 2 weeks for the water to be tested and for the results to get back. For that reason I am not going to meet my SMART goal this six weeks and am going to change it so that I present my plan this six weeks and I can experiment in the next six weeks.

Thanks for reading about the intro to my Passion Project.

Trace