Our team Action Faction entered a worldwide contest known as the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. This contest encourages teams of two to four students, working with a teacher, to identify environmental issues of concern and create sustainable, reproducible improvements in their local communities. Our whole class based our projects around the big issue of water. We were split into our groups and had to come up with ideas to help make a dent in solving this water crisis. Each group voted amongst themselves for the best experiment.
My group the Bubble Buddies, consisted of Andres Valenzuela, Lynnee Lampton and Juan Aguirre, came up with the idea of using shampoos. Our project name was Shampoo vs. Plants. We conducted an experiment about how chemicals used in shampoos can affect the environment, specifically plants. We planned on using the results to show people how shampoo can change the environment, concluding that they would be negative based on our research. We theorizing that educating people would motivate them to make more environmentally friendly decisions, therefore decreasing water contamination.
We hypothesized that if we placed three plants in three separate containers, one containing water mixed with a chemical shampoo, one with natural shampoo, and one with no shampoo, the plant with chemical shampoo would die first due to the chemicals. To test our hypothesis we conducted the experiment described above. We placed the plants outside for 5 days of observation over a total of a two week period. We wrote down everything that we noticed was changing, including: smell, texture, color, temperature, and many other miscellaneous pieces of information.
After collecting our data and analyzing it, we conducted further research. Based on the research, we found that introducing chemicals into an ecosystem on a wider scale creates an algae bloom. Algae absorbs much more oxygen and over time everything in the area including plant, animals, etc. would eventually die off due to the lack of oxygen. From that we were able to conclude that the natural shampoo is indeed better for the environment.
To explore more about the Bubble Buddies and the results we found click here.
Click here to see our full application into the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.
My group the Bubble Buddies, consisted of Andres Valenzuela, Lynnee Lampton and Juan Aguirre, came up with the idea of using shampoos. Our project name was Shampoo vs. Plants. We conducted an experiment about how chemicals used in shampoos can affect the environment, specifically plants. We planned on using the results to show people how shampoo can change the environment, concluding that they would be negative based on our research. We theorizing that educating people would motivate them to make more environmentally friendly decisions, therefore decreasing water contamination.
We hypothesized that if we placed three plants in three separate containers, one containing water mixed with a chemical shampoo, one with natural shampoo, and one with no shampoo, the plant with chemical shampoo would die first due to the chemicals. To test our hypothesis we conducted the experiment described above. We placed the plants outside for 5 days of observation over a total of a two week period. We wrote down everything that we noticed was changing, including: smell, texture, color, temperature, and many other miscellaneous pieces of information.
After collecting our data and analyzing it, we conducted further research. Based on the research, we found that introducing chemicals into an ecosystem on a wider scale creates an algae bloom. Algae absorbs much more oxygen and over time everything in the area including plant, animals, etc. would eventually die off due to the lack of oxygen. From that we were able to conclude that the natural shampoo is indeed better for the environment.
To explore more about the Bubble Buddies and the results we found click here.
Click here to see our full application into the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.
Project Reflection
This project was the most stressful project I have done in my 3 years at High Tech. During this project I learned exactly how much water impacts our world. I now know how much is used on a daily basis and if we keep at that rate we won't have water in the upcoming years. I found it very interesting how much money people are willing to spend on clean water to be right in front of them then still complain while many people have to walk miles and miles to get contaminated, dirty water but are more than happy and willing to to that for their family. Beyond all that I learned how to really persevere.
My group and the team as a whole had many set backs especially getting ready for exhibition but we worked really hard and spent many hours after school to make sure everything came together. One thing I'm proud of is within my group, we completely changed our whole experiment almost in the middle of the project and even then my group never gave up. Also at the end of our data collection it was pretty clear everything was against our hypothesis leaving us feeling very discouraged but not for long, shortly after we did further research to prove we were correct. As a whole team I was overly proud when I walked into class during the exhibition to see how far we had come. Thinking just hours before only 2 on the panels had been finished, we all came together helping out with whatever we could. Although I was not all too thrilled with applying for this challenge, the overall product came out better than anyone could have imagined.
This project was the most stressful project I have done in my 3 years at High Tech. During this project I learned exactly how much water impacts our world. I now know how much is used on a daily basis and if we keep at that rate we won't have water in the upcoming years. I found it very interesting how much money people are willing to spend on clean water to be right in front of them then still complain while many people have to walk miles and miles to get contaminated, dirty water but are more than happy and willing to to that for their family. Beyond all that I learned how to really persevere.
My group and the team as a whole had many set backs especially getting ready for exhibition but we worked really hard and spent many hours after school to make sure everything came together. One thing I'm proud of is within my group, we completely changed our whole experiment almost in the middle of the project and even then my group never gave up. Also at the end of our data collection it was pretty clear everything was against our hypothesis leaving us feeling very discouraged but not for long, shortly after we did further research to prove we were correct. As a whole team I was overly proud when I walked into class during the exhibition to see how far we had come. Thinking just hours before only 2 on the panels had been finished, we all came together helping out with whatever we could. Although I was not all too thrilled with applying for this challenge, the overall product came out better than anyone could have imagined.