Whittney and I chose the topic of Composts.
Our action plan will be based mainly on composts. We will be drawing up a plan to have the school start a compost. There will be compost bins at lunch were kids can put leftover food in. After school we could bring the bins outside to a universal compost bin where the lunch bins will be dumped. After the compost turns to dirt we will use it to plant beautiful flowers and gardens around the school.
In our bio bottle we will be testing the new compostable Sunchip bag. We will be using the bag as the dependant variable in the bottle and nothing but a normal bio bottle as the other. Over a long period of time we will see if the bag really does composts or not.
The river test and our action plan are related in a couple of ways. The river test we will do is called BOD (biological oxygen demand). This shows how healthy the water is by the amount that micro-organism take in over a period of 5 days. This is related to our action plan to determine if the compost is healthy to sustain life and be unharmful to it as well.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid+20080915101132AAnGVQ7
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Eaton Rapids Water Treatment
There are many things that go on in the Water Treatment Plant in Eaton Rapids. The workers have control of over 38 miles of water lines underground. In Eaton Rapids, we get our water from 3 rock wells and 3 other wells. They use Chlorine, phosphate, and fluoride to clean the water and to prevent damage to the pipes. There is over 1 million gallons of water over our heads in the water towers in Eaton Rapids. The water goes out to all the houses in Eaton Rapids and there is a graph in the plant that shows the amount of water being used. The water pressure comes from the water pushing down in the water towers. There are 3 men that are currently working in the Water Treatment Plant. There is a lab were they do water tests to check for PH levels, Escherichia Coli, and other bacteria and viruses. These are some of the things that happen in the Water Treatment Plant in Eaton Rapids.
Monday, September 13, 2010
H20 Treatment Blog
1. What happens to H2O to make it drinkable?
Firstly, drinkable water is defined as being rid of harmful bacteria and other pathegens, also other chemicals must be below drinking-water standards. So to make water drinkable it must go through several steps of cleaning. The first step to purify water is Intake Screens. This doesnt allow plants, logs, and other large particles to enter the process. Next, water is sent to a Rapid Mixing Unit which removes color, sediments, and bacteria. The use of Aluminum Sulfate helps this process. Thirdly, the Aluminum Sulfate in the last step is formed into Floc, this is called Floculation. Then the water is sent to sedimentation where Floc settles to the bottom of the tank to be removed. Then water goes through Clearwell's where more chemicals are added to help the water to become pure. Chloramines are added to kill bacteria and viruses. Lime is added to adjust the Ph Level. Chlorine is finally added as a primary disinfectent. Orthophosphate is added to prevent the corrosion of pipes. Now the water is good to drink.
2. What happens to water that is "Flushed"? How is it treated?
Water that is leaving a home goes to a septic tank or goes to a sewage-treatment plant. There the water gets cleaned by chemicals and is reused. After it is cleaned it is sent into rivers or reused for other purposes.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qahome.html
http://www.charlestonwater.com/water_process_large.htm
Firstly, drinkable water is defined as being rid of harmful bacteria and other pathegens, also other chemicals must be below drinking-water standards. So to make water drinkable it must go through several steps of cleaning. The first step to purify water is Intake Screens. This doesnt allow plants, logs, and other large particles to enter the process. Next, water is sent to a Rapid Mixing Unit which removes color, sediments, and bacteria. The use of Aluminum Sulfate helps this process. Thirdly, the Aluminum Sulfate in the last step is formed into Floc, this is called Floculation. Then the water is sent to sedimentation where Floc settles to the bottom of the tank to be removed. Then water goes through Clearwell's where more chemicals are added to help the water to become pure. Chloramines are added to kill bacteria and viruses. Lime is added to adjust the Ph Level. Chlorine is finally added as a primary disinfectent. Orthophosphate is added to prevent the corrosion of pipes. Now the water is good to drink.
2. What happens to water that is "Flushed"? How is it treated?
Water that is leaving a home goes to a septic tank or goes to a sewage-treatment plant. There the water gets cleaned by chemicals and is reused. After it is cleaned it is sent into rivers or reused for other purposes.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qahome.html
http://www.charlestonwater.com/water_process_large.htm
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Carbon Footprint
A Carbon Footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases are emitted into the environment by a person, household, organization, country, etc.
1. http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
Above is a URL to a site to help calculate your CARBON FOOTPRINT.
2. This site was very useful and accurate for me to use. It helped me find out which 'station' of GHG's helped or hurt the environment we live in. This is a site where most kids would have no trouble using. The site is clearly labeled and is easy to understand.
3. My Carbon Footprint as a household of five people the results were: 91 tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent to 1 year. This is lower than the U.S. National Average.
4. Their are three easy ways I can reduce my Carbon Footprint.
A) I can reduce my Carbon Footprint myself in a few simple ways. I can take shorter showers each day. I also could carpool or provide a carpool to people in my area to school every day. I could reduce the amount of meat I eat each day and try to stick to more organic foods. These are only a couple of ways I could reduce my Footprint.
B) My school could reduce its Carbon Footprint as well. My schools cafeteria could serve more organic foods. It could cut back on transportation by having one day a month be a no bus day and kids could learn about carpooling this way. Also the school could have more LIGHTS OFF days to reduce the amount of electricity it uses. These are some ways my school could reduce its Carbon Footprint.
C) The community could reduce its carbon footprint in a few easy ways. There could be a community compost center in which people could bring their compost materials there. There could also be a COMMUNITY CLEAN UP weekend where there would be environment awareness programs and a major clean up of highways, roads, parks, and other important pieces of land here. That would be like a 'Earth Day' except it would be more frequent, like a couple of weekends throughout the spring, summer, and fall.
5. Our community leaves a big Carbon Footprint on our watershed. Eaton Rapids is part of 2 major watersheds: Grand River, and Great Lakes watershed. There is a lot we can to improve the watershed here. Since "knowledge is power" I think it's important to have accurate analysis of our city's water in which data should be collected often. The way we use our environment reflects in our watershed. So far our community has done a lot to reduce the amount of pollutants going into the watershed. One thing that the city has done is put in a new sewer system to prevent from leakage into the Grand River and homes when it floods. A clean watershed provides many good things to the habitat surroundings. It helps animals from being poisoned and plants from being destroyed. It provides clean water to houses and communities. It's important to reduce the Carbon Footprint in our watershed to protect our community's and our environment's future.
1. http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
Above is a URL to a site to help calculate your CARBON FOOTPRINT.
2. This site was very useful and accurate for me to use. It helped me find out which 'station' of GHG's helped or hurt the environment we live in. This is a site where most kids would have no trouble using. The site is clearly labeled and is easy to understand.
3. My Carbon Footprint as a household of five people the results were: 91 tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent to 1 year. This is lower than the U.S. National Average.
4. Their are three easy ways I can reduce my Carbon Footprint.
A) I can reduce my Carbon Footprint myself in a few simple ways. I can take shorter showers each day. I also could carpool or provide a carpool to people in my area to school every day. I could reduce the amount of meat I eat each day and try to stick to more organic foods. These are only a couple of ways I could reduce my Footprint.
B) My school could reduce its Carbon Footprint as well. My schools cafeteria could serve more organic foods. It could cut back on transportation by having one day a month be a no bus day and kids could learn about carpooling this way. Also the school could have more LIGHTS OFF days to reduce the amount of electricity it uses. These are some ways my school could reduce its Carbon Footprint.
C) The community could reduce its carbon footprint in a few easy ways. There could be a community compost center in which people could bring their compost materials there. There could also be a COMMUNITY CLEAN UP weekend where there would be environment awareness programs and a major clean up of highways, roads, parks, and other important pieces of land here. That would be like a 'Earth Day' except it would be more frequent, like a couple of weekends throughout the spring, summer, and fall.
5. Our community leaves a big Carbon Footprint on our watershed. Eaton Rapids is part of 2 major watersheds: Grand River, and Great Lakes watershed. There is a lot we can to improve the watershed here. Since "knowledge is power" I think it's important to have accurate analysis of our city's water in which data should be collected often. The way we use our environment reflects in our watershed. So far our community has done a lot to reduce the amount of pollutants going into the watershed. One thing that the city has done is put in a new sewer system to prevent from leakage into the Grand River and homes when it floods. A clean watershed provides many good things to the habitat surroundings. It helps animals from being poisoned and plants from being destroyed. It provides clean water to houses and communities. It's important to reduce the Carbon Footprint in our watershed to protect our community's and our environment's future.
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