Final Entry

So, just a recap on how the day itself went:

We set up our three apparatus and put them in their positions. One under a florescent light and another under an incandescent lamp. As the sun was not out, and it was raining, we decided to keep our natural sunlight sample indoors until the right conditions presented themselves. 

We worked very successfully as a group, and were able to self-delegate, completing all of our tasks efficiently. The dynamic of our group had a cooperative nature as there was not one leader, but rather we worked together to accomplish our goal of discovering the most effective light under which desalination can take place. We each checked up on the separate tests throughout the day to follow their progress

When a sunny day finally came, we seized the opportunity and we were able to put our natural sunlight basin outside to be tested.  The results were all that we could hope for. In the table below, the results of our project may be seen.

	Sample 1 (White)	Sample 2 (Blue)	Sample 3 (Green)
Initial Salinity (ppt)	29.4	30.2	29.2
Type of Light	Fluorescent	Natural Sunlight	Incandescent
Volume of water collected (mL)	0	112.5	0
Final Salinity of water in basin(ppt)	22.7	46.3	31.8
Salinity of collected water (ppt)	N/A	0.0	N/A

We are really pleased with the results as they clearly show that sunlight is the most effective light source when desalinating water. We wondered if this was do with the different temperatures of the lights sources. Also, the results for the salinity were consistent with what we expect, as the water collected was fresh water.

The results of our project are also interesting as they tell us that there is a method to purify seawater that only requires the sun. 

So maybe our key lesson is that if there is any chance you are going to be stranded on a boat, bring some saran wrap. 

Alice, Andrea, Adriana, Christina

Today is the day!

Today is officially group 4 project day, and we're off to a very good start.

We have assembled all our apparatus (three trials in all). We changed our idea slightly in that instead of using three different materials, we're now using the same material (saran wrap) and three different light sources (fluorescent, incandescent and natural sunlight, though probably not today because it's a bit cloudy).

We have recorded the starting time of each trial and measured each initial salinity also. This is very exciting!

We'll blog again later in the day when we check our experiments.

A definite idea!!!!!

Hello again!  We have come up with a definite experiment to undertake on saturday. We are going to create 3 different styles of solar stills to distill ocean water. We will then be comparing the 3 results looking at the volume collected and salinity of the distilled water.

This is the list of materials we will need:

• bowl
• plastic cup, 1" shorter than sides of bowl or cut to size
• tape or rubber band large enough to go around bowl
• small rock or weight
• salt water
  We will be using clear saran wrap to cover one test, black fabric for the second and a colored plastic shopping bag for the third.
  
  
  We are testing these specific materials as they are more readily available if you were stranded at sea than any of the other methods we researched.
  
  
  Until next time...the team
   

April 11th meeting

Tonight we are talking about a possible alternative distillation method to compare to simply boiling our sample and collecting the steam. We found some interesting ideas but need to develop them, probably with consulting Laura. We are also currently looking for a way to measure the energy each different method will use, as another comparison. We are planning to carry out our experiment on Saturday, or before if possible, and then use Saturday to analyze our results.

Potential new idea?

So Christina and I have been having a little brainstorm and we're thinking of refining our research question further by considering the differences in how much energy different types of distillation/desalination need, thus finding the most sensible option for the global future...maybe. Also, we're making a list of our equipment and materials, which we will include in the next blog. See you later, eager scientists!

-Christina and Alice

Recap

We thought we would give a recap of what we have done since the last meeting:

-We decided to do something with distillation in the context of being stuck on a boat and having to make water to survive. This is relevant to the future as the world is running out of fresh water sources. 

- We also spoke to Jonathan as to getting materials. However, we decided it would be best to have a more concrete idea of how we will carry out our distillation process before we come up with a list of materials.

We are about to start our next meeting!

The Idea

So we just finished our crazy brainstorm and had the following ideas:

why not to drink sea water..

distillation of water- energy required

wrinkles (on fingers) - cause and effect

tsunamis

food chains of the ocean

At the moment, we're leaning towards doing something about distilling seawater and considering why it's unsafe to drink (due to the salinity and other factors also).

We will meet again this week to decide on equipment - very exciting!!