Science Experiments
Who Wants to do an Experiment?
Another task us interns were responsible for was to gather guests to join us at our table and to help us with a science experiment. Each of our experiments have somewhat of a different target audience, but has something everybody can learn. We have four main science experiments all aimed to educated guests on climate change, environmental degradation, or about animals we aim to protect in the bay. Here is a little bit about each experiment that I have conducted at Save The Bay....
The Watershed Experiment: This experiment is great to showcase how water moves and where things end up when littering or polluting a watershed. During the experiment we would have people build a town and litter it, pollute it, and do other things that humans do to their environment on an everyday basis. Next, we would have them demonstrate what happens when it rains by pouring water all over the town. This shows everybody where all the pollutants and litter inevitably end up; in the ocean effecting all of the sea life.
The Ocean Acidification Experiment: This experiment teaches our guests how rampant carbon dioxide emissions coming from cars, factories etc. eventually moves from the atmosphere into our ocean. They would test different levels of acidification using vinegar and baking powder, they would also test water they blew in to see that the carbon dioxide we breathe out creates more acidification as well. To do this we used a solution that would change color depending on acidification levels that corresponded with our spectrum chart. Lastly, we would have them feel the shells that sat in water with higher levels of acidity. The shells were soft and decomposing, these shells have the purpose of protecting the animals inside them. Ocean acidification can throw off the entire food web by effecting these animals.
Sealia: Sealia isn't exactly an experiment she is more so our friend, but she helps us teach people more about seals and how humans have an effect on their environment. For instance, seals have a specially designed body and specially designed organs that help them dive under water for an extended amount of time in search of food. They also have a mucus layer over their eyes instead of eyelids which gives them better underwater vision and makes it so they do not have to close their eyes kind of like goggles for us. My favorite thing to tell about is the plastic bags that have been found in the stomachs of dead seals, with the abundance of plastic in the ocean seals have been eating it without knowing what it is. When seals eat plastic they can not digest it because they have not had time to evolve to do so. Due to this they end up thinking they are full and starving themselves to death, this is just one reason we should be careful with how much plastic we use and where it ends up going.
Sea Levels Rising: This experiment is still in the works and I had to help design how to go about it's procedure. In this experiment we show how temperature rising results in the rising level of water due to the water molecules reaction. We would also have an "iceberg" that would melt into the water which also contributed to the rising level of water. We would then ask why it matters that the sea level. One answer would be shoreline erosion and by cutting back on the use of fossil fuels which heat the atmosphere.