Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hii

I am in the 10th grade and have been given a science project for the first time . Water quality as the topic. T say I'm stressed out is an understatement I'm not sure how it works, still trying to figure it out.

People in our town are forever complaining about our water quality and how it is different in its different parts soo

I was thinking on testing the different water qualities from the different reservoirs but they also come from different points of the river but they are also affected by the piping (how old the pipes are). how do I go about it then?

Trying to make it simple and understandable. is it even understandable? Should it be more complex since I'm technically a senior? please help!

The Lost Cause
andiie

Hi Andie,

Welcome to science buddies!

Don't worry; you are in the right place to get help with your science project. I predict that you are going to do the most amazing science fair project; So for now, try to focus on getting started. Here are my suggestions:

The topic of water quality is vast and there are lots of possible projects that you could do. For example, here are 10 project ideas from this website on the topic:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... uality&p=1

Read through each of these project ideas and decide if any of these projects would match your interest. You will be spending some time on your science project, so you need to pick something that you really would like to do.

Your comment about the complaints about water quality in your town is intriguing. What is it about the water quality that people are concerned about? Is the water potentially toxic? Does is taste bad? Is there a high level of a particular substance that is of interest? Whatever the problem is would make an excellent topic for your project. Tell me what the problem is and I'll probably be able to suggest an experiment that you could do.

You should also do background reading on water quality. This will help you become informed about current issues in water quality and might give you an idea for a project. Recent news articles are good sources of project ideas.

You don't need to worry about solving all of the problems on water quality. You just need to identify one experiment that you can do to answer your project question. You will be designing a carefully controlled experiment that will have one independent variable and hopefully you will have time to repeat the experiment more than one time. Here's the guide for doing a science project from this website. You are at the first step and need to identify your project question. Since this is your first science project, I recommend reading through all of the steps so you will know where you are going.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... uality&p=1

Let me know what you decide to do and if you have any other questions.

Donna

Hii Donna thank you for replying .

The water in different parts smells and tastes differently sometimes even the color is off, but I am then afraid to do such an experiment whereby they all come from the same source our river. Then testing them out and getting all the same results. The difference is some reservoirs are connected to the beginning of the river, some the middle ,some the end.

Actually read up on some of the topics you suggested. Found the one interesting one of the dissolved oxygen in water. where I can test it from different parts of the river(eg. fast moving or still) and depths. Its another way of testing water quality but is it as effective?

Should it be town water. vs. bottled. Or river water having different outcomes at different reservoirs(Comparing the water sources).

does it effect my experiment much if my outcome is totally different from what I predicted and is actually what it should be?

Sorry for so many question just trying to figure it all out.

-Hopeful Andiie.

Hi,

Is this the dissolved oxygen project you were referring to?

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p014.shtml

This is a very good project. Perhaps you could collect water samples over a specific geographic region, or perhaps compare the oxygen in the water source and the treated water that is diverted for home use. Do you think that dissolved oxygen is an issue for your local water supply?

Water that is cloudy and tastes bad is definitely a good problem for a science fair project. Here are some non-scientific sources that give more details of the possible sources of off-taste for science project.

https://lawrenceks.org/assets/utilities ... hetics.pdf

http://www.superterry.com/water-tastes- ... smell-bad/

Can you contact your local water company and ask them what the problem might be due to? You may need to measure hydrogen sulfide, chlorine, or heavy metals in the water. If the problem is algae contamination, you would need to find out how to measure this.

Measuring water turbidity is a standard test that is always done on water quality testing. Here are two methods for measuring turbidity:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_hea ... fs2_33.pdf

I recommend that you continue to do more background reading. Try to find scientific references if you can. Do a literature search and find out if anyone has published any results on your local water supply. The local water company should have a lot of data available. Look at a map of the rivers and see if there is any obvious industrial source of pollution that could affect water quality.

When you call the local water company, tell them that you are a high school student working on a science project and that you would like to talk to someone who is knowledgeable about the local water supply.

Gather as much information as possible so that whatever project you select, it will be relevant and will contribute to the knowledge on the subject. Try to identify a specific problem that you can investigate.

All of the topics here (dissolved oxygen, chloride, turbidity, etc.) are ideal for a science project because these are parameters that can be measured. You will have one independent variable, which will probably be the source of the water, and one or more dependent variables, which will be the parameter(s) that you are measuring.

Don't worry about all of the results being the same; if you do a good job in your background research and identify a specific problem to investigate, this won't happen

Let me know what you find out about your local water supply.


Donna

Hi,

I did not answer your questions about the experimental outcome being different than your hypothesis. You don't need to worry about this at to moment, and you won't know the outcome until you obtain your quantitative results.

Once you have identified your project question, you will be formulating a hypothesis that will predict what will happen. For a science project, the key is to be able to measure exactly what you are doing and what the results are.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... esis.shtml

Is your teacher asking that you state a null hypothesis?

Donna

Hii

Will definitely contact the water affairs! and no she did not.

thank you for all your help!

Hi Andie,

You are welcome! Good luck with water affairs.

Donna

Hi Andie,

Here are some of the problems you might decide to investigate. You need to pick just one for your science project.

http://www.randwater.co.za/corporateres ... ution.aspx

Donna