Pictures of Station: Self Evaluation :
Station Visual Appeal : 3.5/4 I give myself a 3.5 out of 4 because my station attracted quite a bit of people ranging from adults to teens to kids. A lot of the adults were really interested in my experiment and the graphs that showed changes in sea levels, global temperature and etc. There was also a group of elementary school students that were doing a unit on climate change. When they saw my station, a couple of the students came over with their teacher and I got to talk to them. I wanted people to see how climate change is affecting our lives and I showcased my experiment along with other general information. Presentation: 4/4 I give myself a 4 out of 4 because I believe everyone who came to my station went away having learned something new. During my presentation, I showed my experiment results and the video, science behind climate change, how to reduce emissions, and the effects and causes of climate change. The type of questions they asked were about the greenhouse effect, my experiment, tips on how to reduce emissions, and about the future of climate change. Learning (others): 4/4 I give myself a 4 out of 4 because everyone who came to my station learned something new. They learned about how higher concentrations CO2 trap more heat, how to reduce emissions, the science behind climate change, causes and effects, and small things they can do in their lives to help. Learning (yours) : 4/4 I give myself a 4 out of 4 because my station and project greatly reflected what I learned throughout the course of doing this project. The learning I chose to highlight was my experiment. I got better at performing experiments on my own, improve my analysis skills and my ability to showcase my learning in a organized manner. I also highlighted my learnings about climate change in general. Other: All in all, I'm happy about this project. I got the chance to learn about a very important issue and also teach others about it. This project has greatly affected my lifestyle choices and from now on, I am more conscious of my decisions.
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What information will I present at the IDS fair?
At the IDS fair I will present the following information?
How will I present the information? I will have my laptop, an external monitor and possibly another monitor or a poster-board to present my information. This week my goal was to keep refining my experiment, come up with possible equipment, and stay updated with new research.
Experiment: Material List: so far this is what I've come up with -car -thermometer -stopwatch -rubber hose -3 tanks/containers for water -soil -air tight bags and tape to facilitate the car exhaust going into the tank. So the three tanks will be filled with a layer of soil (2cm thick). First tank will be filled with normal air, the second tank will be filled with exhaust from a car, and the third tank will be filled air from our lungs. So basically, I will be looking at how fast the temperature slows down when considering each source of CO2. In the end what I want to show is that higher concentrations of CO2 will make the temperature decrease at a much slower rate. New Research/Updates: I couldn't really find much for this week https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07495-7 During the most recent ice age, abrupt changes in the Arctic climate were transmitted through the ocean to Antarctica. An atmospheric link between the two hemispheres has now been identified across the Antarctic continent. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0727-5 Abrupt ice-age shifts in southern westerly winds and Antarctic climate forced from the north. This week my goal was picking an experiment from the two I brainstormed last week. Another part of my goal was staying up to date with new research.
New Research: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0341-4 Soil organic matter can release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as the climate warms. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0344-1 Ocean acidification, the change in seawater carbonate chemistry due to the uptake of anthropogenic CO2, affects the physiology of marine organisms in multiple ways1. Diverse competitive and trophic interactions transform the metabolic responses to changes in community composition, seasonal succession and potentially geographical distribution of species. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0321-8 Projected Bitcoin usage, should it follow the rate of adoption of other broadly adopted technologies, could alone produce enough CO2 emissions to push warming above 2 °C within less than three decades. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0263-1 Global observations show that the ocean lost approximately 2% of its oxygen inventory over the past five decades with important implications for marine ecosystems Experiment: I want my experiment to show the effects of carbon dioxide on temperature so the idea is that I'm gonna try to see the difference in rates in which temperature falls(cools down) depending on the CO2 concentration. For sources of CO2, I'm thinking of using air from our lungs which has about 4% CO2 and the smoke a car's exhaust which has about 13% CO2. For the next couple of weeks, I will plan on coming up with more specifics regarding the experiment. This week my goal was to watch a 2 hour long documentary called the Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. This documentary/film was made in 2006 to educate people on climate change and global warming. Former United States Vice President Al Gore's sets out on a campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a comprehensive slide show that Gore's has presented over a thousand times to audiences worldwide. Basic synopsis: Former United States Vice President Al Gore's sets out on a campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a comprehensive slide show that Gore's has presented over a thousand times to audiences worldwide. My thoughts on this documentary. After watching, I feel like this was very informative and helped a lot in adding to my knowledge about climate change. Even though this is from 2006 and a lot of new research has come out since then, it still did an excellent job in educating me. A lot people liked it but a lot people disliked it too. They called it a desperate attempt for self promotion and propaganda. Around this time, climate change wasn't as big of a issue now. If these people had known what the future now held for us, their opinions may have been different. One thing I liked it was very visual, it showed a lot of graphs and charts which made digesting the information easier. A graph that Gore presented which shows a pattern of steadily increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1958. This week my goal was to stay updated on new research, research the effects of climate change on agriculture, look at arguments of people who disagree with climate change and watch a documentary.
New Research: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/14/climate-change-hurricanes-study-global-warming -Climate change makes hurricanes, cyclones, etc. more destructive this new research suggests. If global temperatures rise by 2-3C, rainfall during a tropical storm as powerful as Hurricane Ike in 2008 would intensify by 26.5% https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181109101435.htm -Beaches are at risk due to increase in atmospheric CO2 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181107172914.htm -Climate change causing more severe wildfires. A warmer, drier climate is expected is increase the likelihood of larger-scale forest disturbances such as wildfires, insect outbreaks, disease and drought, according to a new study. The documentary I wanted to start but I couldn't find a link online Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497116/ Effects on Agriculture: - Higher CO2 levels can affect crop yields. -Though rising CO2 can stimulate plant growth, it also reduces the nutritional value of most food crops. Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide reduce the concentrations of protein and essential minerals in most plant species, including wheat, soybeans, and rice. This direct effect of rising CO2 on the nutritional value of crops represents a potential threat to human health. Human health is also threatened by increased pesticide use due to increased pest pressures and reductions in the efficacy of pesticides. Some arguments people make against climate change -Plants and animals can adapt -since climate change is happening so fast, organisms don't have time to adapt. -Antarctic Ice is increasing not melting -Here there is a misunderstanding on the difference between sea ice and land ice. Sea ice, which builds up in the winter and melts in the summer, has been getting blown around by wind so it is spreading, not increasing in volume. Land ice, which covers 98 percent of Antarctica’s land mass (accumulated over thousands of years) is melting at an alarming rate, and that’s driving up sea levels. After looking at many more arguments than the ones listed above, I disagree because the science and stats clearly state that climate change exist. This week my goal was to stay updated on new research and think of possible experiments to show the effect of carbon dioxide on temperature.
Possible Experiments Fill a tank with water/soil, put a hole in the tank which connects to a pipe that is connected to a car's exhaust. The fumes released from the car would enter the box and then I would measure the temperature changes and play around with some variables in the experiment. One problem here is car's release carbon monoxide so I would need to find a way to convert it to CO2 or brainstorm a new experiment (more likely). Carbon monoxide is formed when carbon undergoes incomplete combustion. Carbon dioxide is formed when carbon undergoes complete combustion. The difference is without enough oxygen, reactions will undergo incomplete combustion, this is reflected in the chemical formula. To convert CO into CO2, you just have to make it undergo combustion again. This is what I need to do if I stick with this experiment idea. Another Possible Experiment I could do something with buying a tool that measures CO2 levels and add some variables that would show the effects of CO2. I could possibly go outside one day measure the temperature and go outside sometime later and measure CO2 levels to see if they have increases and effected the temperature. Problems with this idea are : I would need more time because CO2 levels don't affect temperature drastically that fast. In my opinion, there would be too much room for error and I would need way more time. I am probably going to stick with something similar to the first idea. New Research: In Bangladesh, projected sea level rises could increase flooding an threaten coastal agriculture. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0313-8 Climate and land-cover change can affect the summer and winter ranges and migration distances of migratory birds https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0312-9 This week my IDS was still more research but more in depth. I was basically researching about the specific statistics on climate change and researching the effects of climate change. The goal I did before this goal about reliable sources really helped me on this goal because it allowed me to use those valuable sources to get stats. Stats: 1.8 Fahrenheit = about 0.95 celsius. 93 percent chance that global temperature will rise by 4 degreed celsius by the end of the century. According to scientists, we have 10 years left to save the planet. According to research, scientists recommend we must reduce fossil fuel use to the point where it’s under 25 percent of the global energy supply by 2100; it’s at 95 percent right no and we need to reduce deforestation to attain a 42 percent decrease in emissions by 2100 Effects of Climate Change
-Rising sea levels -Rising global temperature -Changes in precipitation patterns -More droughts and heat waves -Hurricanes will be stronger and more intense -Frost free season and growing season will lengthen which will affect ecosystems and agriculture. For my first goal, I just wanted to do some basic research that would give me an overview of the entire project and later on I am going get into in depth researching. The main focus of my research this week was finding reliable sources for information, and a finding a little background information on climate change just to get my self started off. When I first wrote my goal, I put too much of a load on myself by writing too many things to research. So what I did was I narrowed down my research to just finding reliable sources and researching a little bit of the science behind climate change.
Some reliable sources of information I found at the moment (I will find more as I go along) - First part of my goal this week These sources are reliable because some of the are government sources and the ones that aren't, I did research on the creators of the website to see if they were biased or not objective in anyway. https://climate.nasa.gov/ https://apha.org/topics-and-issues/climate-change https://apha.org/topics-and-issues/climate-change http://www.who.int/globalchange/en/ http://www.ec.gc.ca/cc/Default.asp?lang=En&n=9853BFC5-1 http://www.cawcr.gov.au/projects/Climatechange/ https://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/ http://www.climatecentral.org/ https://www.historicalclimatology.com/blog http://www.realclimate.org/ Some background info on climate change (second part of my goal this week) Climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels which produces carbon dioxide. The CO2 emitted creates an insulation layer in the atmosphere. When the sun radiates energy to heat up the earth, some of it is reflected back into space but some of it is trapped in the atmosphere by the insulation layer of the greenhouse gasses, progressively increasing the temperature of the earth. When thinking of potential problems I may run into during my IDS, all I can think of is time. I believe my main problem is going to be time management. Currently, I volunteer twice a week, play soccer twice a week, and on top of that there is homework. If I want to succeed with my IDS, I feel that most of my heavy work will have to be on the weekend and the light research and work can be during the weekdays. I also do have one free block which I could use but I am supposed to be doing online French during that time. Another problem separate from time could be leaving things to the last minute. I have a feeling that I might get carried away in other school work and procrastinate, therefore leaving till that last minute. Now that I think about it, both of these problems are quite plausible and have a chance of happening. The last problem I can think of that seems reasonable is a difficulty of acquiring the necessary materials. When I made construct a experiment and make a list of materials, I might need to switch a lot of the materials around. All in all, I believe if I work hard to avoid these problems, this will be an enjoyable and educational journey.
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June 2019
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