Description:
For this project, groups were assigned to choose a project based around the conservation and/or purification of water with chemistry included in either the understanding of the problem or the solution to the problem. After brainstorming, we decided to focus on investigating aeroponics, specifically in space, as space is an environment requires constant recycling of material and aeroponics is very efficient in terms of resource consumption. This was a mostly research and theory project due to aeroponics being difficult to manage as high school students.
Concepts:
Nutrients: The minerals and other resources required for plant to grow. Without proper supply and balance, a plant will perish. We used the concept of nutrients to understand how plants could be grown without a medium.
Medium: The soil or other solid materiel that a plant grows in. By understanding what a medium provides a plant, aeroponics could be applied as a more ideal process in our project.
Aeroponics: The technique of growing plants outside of a medium by providing all required nutrients to a plant through a fine water mist. This process isolates each plant to prevent disease and is much more efficient than traditional method. To account for the micro gravity of space, the entire system would need to be pressurized. We used aeroponics as the center of our project to propose a more efficient farming technique.
Modified Photosynthesis: A version of photosynthesis that uses a controlled mix of red and blue LED lights in order to increase growth. We implemented modified photosynthesis as part of the total farming system to increase production.
Capillary Action: The way a liquid reacts based on the surface tension of that liquid. We used capillary action as a way of understanding how water would behave in a micro gravity environment.
Reverse Osmosis: A technique of filtering by creating a high pressure on one side of a semipermeable membrane and forcing a contaminated substance through to remove contaminants. This is a potential method to purify water for recycling through the aeroponics system.
For this project, groups were assigned to choose a project based around the conservation and/or purification of water with chemistry included in either the understanding of the problem or the solution to the problem. After brainstorming, we decided to focus on investigating aeroponics, specifically in space, as space is an environment requires constant recycling of material and aeroponics is very efficient in terms of resource consumption. This was a mostly research and theory project due to aeroponics being difficult to manage as high school students.
Concepts:
Nutrients: The minerals and other resources required for plant to grow. Without proper supply and balance, a plant will perish. We used the concept of nutrients to understand how plants could be grown without a medium.
Medium: The soil or other solid materiel that a plant grows in. By understanding what a medium provides a plant, aeroponics could be applied as a more ideal process in our project.
Aeroponics: The technique of growing plants outside of a medium by providing all required nutrients to a plant through a fine water mist. This process isolates each plant to prevent disease and is much more efficient than traditional method. To account for the micro gravity of space, the entire system would need to be pressurized. We used aeroponics as the center of our project to propose a more efficient farming technique.
Modified Photosynthesis: A version of photosynthesis that uses a controlled mix of red and blue LED lights in order to increase growth. We implemented modified photosynthesis as part of the total farming system to increase production.
Capillary Action: The way a liquid reacts based on the surface tension of that liquid. We used capillary action as a way of understanding how water would behave in a micro gravity environment.
Reverse Osmosis: A technique of filtering by creating a high pressure on one side of a semipermeable membrane and forcing a contaminated substance through to remove contaminants. This is a potential method to purify water for recycling through the aeroponics system.
Reflection:
Not everything went well during this project. My productivity certainly could have been better. Certain days, not much progress was made due to a lack of overall planning. This could be improved by creating a timescale for the project. Another issue lay with the previously mentioned lack of planning. The overall plan for each individual day was vague and undefined, especially in the early stages of the project. This led to reduced productivity as a whole.
There were some upsides to the upsides to the project as well. This group was especially good at collaboration. When specific tasks, this group was excellent at breaking down problems to inspect them at smaller level. This was how we worked through the individual problems of aeroponics. Another upside to this group was the flexibility of each member to do different tasks. When researching, we sought to cover a wide range of knowledge. To do this, members had to jump between many subjects quickly and all did this well.
Not everything went well during this project. My productivity certainly could have been better. Certain days, not much progress was made due to a lack of overall planning. This could be improved by creating a timescale for the project. Another issue lay with the previously mentioned lack of planning. The overall plan for each individual day was vague and undefined, especially in the early stages of the project. This led to reduced productivity as a whole.
There were some upsides to the upsides to the project as well. This group was especially good at collaboration. When specific tasks, this group was excellent at breaking down problems to inspect them at smaller level. This was how we worked through the individual problems of aeroponics. Another upside to this group was the flexibility of each member to do different tasks. When researching, we sought to cover a wide range of knowledge. To do this, members had to jump between many subjects quickly and all did this well.