Pollution Preventers Help Great Lakes
Our Goal
Michigan is most commonly known as “The Great Lakes State”. This nickname refers to the fact that the shores of Michigan meet four of the five Great Lakes. These lakes include Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie. Throughout Michigan there are more than 11,000 inland lakes. In addition, the Michigan Historical Center states that one of these lakes is never more than six miles from another inland lake or more than 85 miles from one of the Great Lakes. It is a privilege to live in a state where one of the most dynamic evolving systems remain, and unfortunate that education systems do not place emphasis on how important maintaining and using our resources are. There are several issues of water quality, preservation, pollution etc… that is not well understood by many, including students.
The Great Lakes is the largest useable fresh water systems on Earth. They contain about 18 percent of the world supply- the only other thing that contains more fresh water is the polar icecaps. However there these lakes are constantly threatened by different pollutions, including industrial and storm water, habitat loss, invasive species, oil and gas drilling, and over use.
Team Pollution Preventers are part of a seventh grade class at Harper Woods Middle School in Michigan called FutureThink. It is considered to be an achievement to be a part of this class since you need to have certain grades and attendance records. Recently, we have been studying water quality in class. Since we have found it very interesting, we put together Team Pollution Preventers to learn more. We jumped on this opportunity to extend our learning beyond looking at just water quality parameters by building a new and different buoy that yields data on pollution. Our teacher was able to find separate funding of $1,200 through COSEE GREAT LAKES to help pay for the cutting-edge technology that we introduced to the Great Lakes.
With how the modern world is advancing, it only seems as though pollution will continue to rise regardless of recycling. This is why the Pollution Preventers decided to introduce BIF (Basic Information Flotation) and EVA plates (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate plates), new cutting edge technology, to some of the most important freshwater preserves. BIF and EVA can help determine the type of pollution and the level of pollution in the water. Our EVA plates are attached to the bottom of the buoys that we built. These plates are covered in a plastic like material that has the ability to extract chemicals from the water to help us better understand the pollution in the water. Through the use of this technology, we can help decrease the levels of chemical pollution with will in turn make the Great Lakes a healthier living environment for the wildlife and plant life in the areas.