Journal entry for 12/28/2020

For the past couple of months I have not been as focused as I should be on my research project. But an update is the water testing I did was not very efficient because it would take a lot of gallons to show the 1 gram difference to show how dirty the Utah lake is. I brainstormed with my teacher and he gave me the idea to join an organization and collect water with them and we could put a cool project together. However, because of COVID-19 I am not allowed to come in contact with other people so this idea was put on hold. My teacher did tell me about how there was already a solution to cleaning the lake it was just to expensive. 

Moving forward I now need to research about the solution that is to expensive. I will research about the solution, the process of buying this solution, and also understanding other solutions that may also help clean Utah Lake. 

I will keep this blog updated on my progress with my research project!

Journal Entry for 10/30/2020

 Hey! Sorry for not blogging yesterday, to be honest, I forgot! Anyways I talked with my AP Environmental Science teacher, and we decided I might join or get in contact with an organization in Utah who deals with testing for water, and I might join them and borrow their equipment and help them site a location. Then my AP Environmental Science teacher and I will put together a very cool project on it. However, I still need to get in contact with them and I will do it sometime this weekend. The purpose of this is to put it on my college application to look good and to benefit something to the community because I currently have no volunteer opportunities. 

Journal Entry for 10/28/2020

Yesterday I redid the process for finding the designated amount needed to show a 0.5 g change in the mass of the filter before and after I pour water in. I did that yesterday with 1 gallon and it went a lot faster than the first time I did it. The first time I did it with my dad and it went really slow and we ended up using two filters because the first one got clogged. However, yesterday I tried again and it went a lot faster and I only used one filter. I let it dry overnight and today I weighed it and the mass was the exact same again. I met with my AP Environmental Science teacher and we brainstormed on ways to fix this problem. We came up with an option of getting a $368 water testing kit, or joining an organization and collecting data with them and using other data from that organization, and we could come up with an interesting project with it. I still have not decided what I have been doing, the main purpose of this project was to make my college application look really good while helping the environment. That is all for my journal entry today, thanks for reading!

Finding the designated amount of water for the experiment.

Yesterday I actually started my research project, I started by just using water that I collected from a park in Saratoga Springs. I ended up using 12 gallons and filled it up with water from the lake on Saturday, I then brought it home to experiment with. Yesterday (Monday) I poured the water through filters and I had a couple of problems. 

Some of the problems I encountered
1. the filter gets clogged really easily
a. the water is filtering down very slowly
b. some ideas to fix this problem is to maximize the area of the filter or use multiple filters for one test
2. someone has to hold the filter otherwise it will fall and get soaked. 
3. pouring is a challenge (it is heavy and slow)
a. some ideas to fix this problem is to come up with a contraption that is able to hold the gallon 
4. by the looks of it A LOT of water is needed to show the 0.5 g difference
5. there were bugs in the water, when I was filtering the water we saw a bunch of moving bugs. One that is disgusting, two it might change the accuracy of the data because bugs aren't algae

Here is the process of what I did on Saturday and Monday.
1. Go to the North end of Utah Lake (Saratoga Springs Park and Pavillion): 40.348860, -111.901880
2. Collect 12 gallons of water
3. Come home and pour different amounts of water into a beaker (or use the entire gallon) then use that and put it through the filter and let it dry
4. Out of these do multiple amounts of water to find out which one shows the 0.5 g change in mass and designate that as the amount of water needed for all samples that are collected 

I actually have not found the designated amount yet, however, I know that it is A LOT of water because when I filtered an entire gallon of water there wasn't even a change in the mass of the filter's weight. So now I am planning on meeting with my AP Environmental Science teacher who is helping me with this project to see how we can solve this problem. 

Steps for collecting Algae at Utah Lake

Steps for collecting samples. 

1. Collect 1 gallon (might be more, have to test out) of sample water from each spot and correctly mark them.

2. At home, prepare a 12oz (might be more, have to test out) clear beaker for measuring. 

3. For each sample, shake the jar first, and then pour some (designated amount) of sample water into the clear beaker, observe the water and take notes (e.g. color) and take photos.

4. Weigh a clean coffee filter and record the weight.

5. Dump the sample water from the beaker through a filter into a normal glass of water (shake first) pour until all of the water (designated amount) from the beaker is gone. 

6. Let the coffee filter dry (put a cardboard box over to keep from blowing away)

7. Weigh the dried coffee filter with dried algae to find out how much the algae weights. Then record the numbers. 

8. Enter all data into a google sheet.

These are the steps for how to collect the algae from the four different locations. I have not done this yet as of right now I have only gotten water from 1 location and I am trying to find the designated amount needed to show the 0.5g change in weight between the normal filter and the filter with the algae.