Basic Project Description
For this project, we were assigned to find a problem around the globe and solve it using biotechnology. My group focused on ocean pollution. We did a ton of research, brainstormed a solution, and did a ton more of research. We eventually narrowed ocean pollution down into fertilizer runoff, but more specifically algae blooms. Our solution was to make a fertilizer but put hydrated lime, or calcium hydroxide, into it which would kill most of the algae. By doing this, we are saving hundreds of marine animals life, and one step closer to making our ocean a safer and more healthy place.
ocean_pollution_and_our_solution__hehe_that_rhymes_.pdf | |
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Biology Concepts
Biotechnology: the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, etc.
Hydrated lime: colorless crystal or white powder and is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or slaked with water
Eutrophication: excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.
Algae blooms: lots of algae because of excess of nutrients in water.
Hydrated lime: colorless crystal or white powder and is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or slaked with water
Eutrophication: excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.
Algae blooms: lots of algae because of excess of nutrients in water.
Reflection
This project was interactive and broad. It was enjoyable to have as much freedom as to pick any world problem and pursue it in anyway we wanted. It was also very interesting to see how my group progressed through this project, being that we are three really good friends. At first, I thought that we would procrastinate and not get work done until the last week, even though we had five weeks to complete this. Yet, that was most definitely not the case. A peak of this project is of how much we impressed ourselves. We put a lot of work into our presentation and an abundant amount of research and background knowledge went into it. In part with that, we made an informative yet fun and comical video that took a lot of time to edit and create, which is another peak. The video was a great addition to our presentation and was so fun to make. One pit of this project was that we didn't get to show our whole video when we did our presentation. Although it's okay because we got all the important things out of the way, it is a shame we didn't get to watch the end, the bloopers. The bloopers were hilarious and showed that stem can actually be fun! Just kidding, I enjoy stem very much and am glad to be a part of it. Another pit was our answer to the question that we got asked by Don Joseph after our presentation, who was wondering if there was a patent for putting hydrated lime into fertilizer or anything like that. To be honest, we completely forgot about that and hadn't looked into it. Now, I've looked into it and it turns out there is not a patent so we can easily move forward with our project. Finding a solution to ocean pollution was a great way to end the year and I look forward to next year, which is chemistry.