HypothesisIf we place BIF and EVA plates in Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, we will be able to determine the amount of pollution and type of pollution in fresh water environments. We also believe that if we share the information and data we gather; more discussion about prevention and ways to decrease pollution in the Great Lakes will open up. This will help solve our problem. In addition, if we have a base platform of a data set, we think that in the future we can place BIF and EVA in Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair to test the pollution type and levels again. Furthermore, if BIF and EVA work in fresh water environments, we think that it would be useful to place more BIF and EVA plates in the rest of the Great Lakes to maintain pollution control. In addition, we also think that there will be a greater amount of pollutants down river because the Detroit River flows past the industrial center of Detroit so we expect more chemicals and toxins to be found at Lake Erie MetroPark.
Retesting Our HypothesisIf our team were to retest or further test our hypothesis, we would continue our learning about pollution. In addition, instead of having one BIF at each site we would build three BIFS per site. That means, there would be multiple BIFS per lake in the area of our original test. Since we tested near shore, the next time we would deploy buoys in multiple locations farther out in open water. They would be set equal distances in each of the two lakes (eg- 100 meters from shore, 200 meters from shore, etc). This will allow us to receive more data and see if there are different types of pollutants in our Great Lakes. Furthermore, since this research seems to have been successful, the next step to further test our hypothesis, would be to expand out to the rest of the Great Lakes. This would help open even more discussions about pollution in the Great Lakes and how to prevent and decrease pollution.
| Testing Validity of Our HypothesisThe Pollution Preventers learned that it is expensive to take multiple water samples, however, there is a new technology being used in marine waters that is fairly inexpensive. We have spent months investigating issues related to water stewardship, researched common chemical pollutants, then have planned to put Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) plates in the water sources at Metro Park and Lake Erie Metro Park to determine the specific types and amounts of different types of pollution in the Great Lakes. In addition we have also studied the effects of each pollutant found are on our water supply and surrounding environment. Furthermore the Pollution Preventers are going to use the data we collect to mark a starting point for action to resolve the problem. We are looking forward to a hopeful outcome. Once we have our data, we will be able to do more research on the exact pollutants occupying our lakes. From there, the Pollution Preventers will be able to determine other means of eliminating the pollutants and implementing other ways to prevent pollution.
Before our team started anything, we researched the pollution in the Great Lakes. On December 12th 2011, with the help of our teachers Mr. Krueger and Mrs. Teisan, we built our buoys- BIF. We deployed our BIF’s and EVA plates at Lake Erie Metro Park as well as Lake St. Clair Metro Park on December 13th 2011. Steve Stewart, our expert from Michigan Sea Grant, went along on the trip with us to make sure that the deployment was done correctly. On December 20th 2011, we collected our BIF and EVA plates and sent them out to be analyzed. As we retrieved the EVA and BIF apparatus, we also took standard water quality measurements of dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, and GPS. We took these measurements to ensure the water did not have drastic changes in a week’s time. To further our knowledge on pollution and how BIF and EVA worked, we had the chance to talk to Sonia Joseph Joshi, from the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) on December 16th 2011. |