Weekly Blog 3/13/2016 - The Gray Bay

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Water_pollution_fish_kill.jpg/1024px-Water_pollution_fish_kill.jpg

Summary

As of 5 years ago, fish in the Gray Bay have started to die off. This is due to several reasons such as chlorine, low pH levels, sediment, and phosphates in the water. Chlorine gives fish chemical burns. It will burn the fishes gills. The chlorine is let into the water by the water slide. One interesting fact is that the water slide opened up at the same time the fish started dying. The second contributor to the death of the fish is low pH levels. The lower the pH level, the more acidic the water is. Water with too much acid can prevent fish from reproducing as well as kill them. Acid rain is causing the acidity in the water. Phosphates causes things called algal blooms. With too much algae in the water, fish wont be able to consume it all so a lot of it will rot. The bacteria will then eat the rotten algae and multiply. With so much bacteria in the water, the germs will cause oxygen deprivation which will kill the fish. As you can see, the murder of all this fish in the Gray Bay is caused by many different factors.

SP3: Planning and carrying out investigations

I planned out investigations when I read different files about Phosphates. I had to read these files so I could understand the meaning of my data that I collected from the experiment I was about to do. I carried out an investigation when I conducted experiments to find the culprit of the Gray Bay fish kill with my table group. In this phosphate investigation, we measured the phosphate levels in water drainage from the Gold Course, Small Town, and Cattle Ranch. We found that the place where the phosphates in the James Pond water was coming from was the Golf Course. 

XCC - Cause and Effect

One cause and effect relationship I noticed during class was the chain of events that occurred in the gold course leaving phosphates in James Pond. The events started with a dog. When the dog started peeing on the grass in the golf course, the green grass turned brown. Because of this, the owner of the golf course, Sandy Trap ordered her employee Mo Lawn to add more fertilizer and water to the over watered and fertilizered grass. After that, Mo Lawn did as she was told. However, that caused the excess water to drain into Jame Pond. Since fertilizer contains phosphates, an algal bloom occurred in the Pond creating lots of algae. At first, the algae will increase the population of fish. Even with lots of fish, they wont be able to eat all of the algae so the algae will rot. Like I described earlier, bacteria will come and so on. As you can see, by peeing on the grass, the dog has apparently killed several fish. This example of cause and effect is extremely long.

Explain how this relationship helps you "take over the world" - Habits of mind (extra credit)

This relationship demonstrates how small actions can lead to big problems. It teaches me that whenever a do work, I should always be careful and pay attention to even the smallest details to make sure everything is right. When you are ignorant to problems, it may lead to harder problems. Another thing I learned was that I when I solve problems, I need to think of the effect it will have on everyone. For example, Sandy Trap did solve her browning grass problem. The bad part is that she caused another problem by acting hastily. You won't be able to take over the world if you don't pay attention to everything and think about something before you do it.

Multiplier - What type of learner were you this week?

This week, I think I was a creator mutant. This is because I contributed to the class discussions and review of what we are learning about in the beginning of every class period.