What is the best way to reduce pollution in the Ocean?
6-1151
6 Grade
Nativity Catholic School
Archdiocese of San Francisco
2024 San Mateo County Office of Education STEM Fair
Abstract
During my project some essential items and thoughts that went through my mind where if it is not just us, but natural events that pollute the ocean?Like strong winds that blow the garbage and debris in the ocean and cause animals in the ocean to suffer or is it just us that is doing the damage?Some essentials that went through my head to was if there would be a time where we used less plastic and more paper,I say this because plastic can take 20 - 500 years to decompose!While paper maybe a couple days.So during this portion of time that i have committed to my project i have learned many things and ways we can clean if not get all of the plastic out of are seas.My project helped me learn to not just think of not just what we put in the ocean but maybe what actually lives in it.
Purpose Statement
I want to do this project, not just for myself, but to show others that they can make a difference in the world. This information is important because the pollution is building up and affecting the animals. My goal is to discover the best way we can reduce pollution without having to spend money, or a lot effort. My results from my project will add to what we already know by showing everyone that you do not need to dedicate significant time or money to make a difference. It is truly simple and easy actions that can make a huge difference to the health of today's oceans.
Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that the best way to reduce pollution in the oceans is by doing one of a few things including, spending some time on the weekend to pick up your local beach or neighborhood. Another way, which is the simplest in my opinion, is to simply recycle and not litter. Just imagine the difference this would make if just a small percentage of the world did this. It would be a huge change in the oceans. So, my project is to find out good ways to reduce the amount of pollution in today's water. I am testing my theories by searching articles, and actually testing them and seeing on charts the percentage of people that would have to do this for the ocean to be clean in no time.
Experimental Procedures and
Materials
1.Chart - to track info First of all I filled a bathtub will water and 2.debris - to use as trash in ocean put tiny pieces of trash to resemble debris in 3.bathtub- to use as a ocean ocean.Next I searched up how many people 4.Water- to fill the bathtub with are in the world and then searched how much 5.calculator- to add and subtract numbers with it would take to clean it and then I divided
and that's how i got my answer.
Experimental Results
In the conclusion of my experiment resulted in the results of about 20% of people would have to do the simple things I stated for the ocean to be clean by at least 2040.I got this info by saying if there are 7 thousand people on Earth {There are about 7 billion people} and then searched how much percentage of the Earth would it take to clean it.Then when i got 20%, i searched up what is 20% of 7 thousand and i got 1400. So realistically it would take about 1.4 billion people to do these simple task that could change the Ocean, which is crazy.And then i figured out how much time it would take and i scoped that amount of debris from my bathtub out and charted down the time.So in the end this is really all we have to do to make huge change in our world.
Analysis of Experimental Results
This is a chart that show the amount of trash and what type has been polluting the ocean for years now.The data that I collected through my project was that mostly trash ends up by people just littering and not picking up trash.Also it can occur by poor waste management practices and even in some cases extreme natural events.But in the end I learned that all we need to do is the simple stuff to keep are oceans clean form waste and other trash or debris.
Conclusions
In summary my results prove with my hypothesis that just by recycling and just not littering the ocean can be clean by 2040 which is in 16 years!And for this to also happen it would take about 1.4 billion people to do these simple tasks everyday and all the oceans could be cleaned as I found out in my experiment.So basically my project was not to just to do something random but to do something that could change Earth's water forever.But during this project i have developed some questions like if at some point there would be a breaking point to how much change could be in the ocean?Or Is it even possible to just change Earth's oceans so quickly?
Acknowledgements
On this slide I would like to acknowledge my mom who helped me by carrying out with my project by,helping me find the right articles to read on this topic and etc.Also I would like to thank her because she bought me supplies to use in the doing of my project.So thank u to her because without her this project would not have been possible.
Bibliography and
Sources
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/trust/archive/fall-2020/confronting-ocean-plastic-pollution
Author:John Briley Date:Nov 16,2020 Title:Confronting Ocean Plastic Pollution
https://www.statista.com/chart/25056/waste-items-polluting-oceans/
Author:Niall Mccarthy Date:June 11,2021 Title:Plastic Items Dominate Ocean Garbage