Tackling an ecological or environmental science fair project is a good idea for students who want their projects to mean something. These projects, particularly ones that relate to local ecological problems, help to teach students about issues that impact their quality of life and they allow students to make a contribution towards solving the problem. One issue that impacts most local ecosystems is water pollution.

Hypothesis

In this free sample science fair project the treatment of water pollution is examined. In order to come up with a hypothesis background research was required on different ways to treat polluted water. After conducting this research two methodologies for treating water pollution were selected. The hypothesis that resulted is, “Natural enzymes are more effective at treating water pollution then simple settling pond treatment options.”

In this hypothesis the variable that will be measured will be the cleanliness of the treated water and the manipulated variable will be the treatment type.

Experiment

The control experiment for this science fair project will be focused on testing the effectiveness of a settling pond treatment methodology to clean polluted water. In this situation polluted water will refer to sewage water. The experiment will be set up to replicate what happens in a settling pond treatment plant. A student can use an inflatable swimming pool to replicate a settling pond. Sewage water can then be harvested and treated following what is normally done at a settling pond treatment plant.

If this is not possible, then the student can work with a local treatment plant to take samples of pre-treated sewage water and samples of treated sewage water.

The test experiment is going to focus on water pollution treatment methodologies that utilize enzymes as the cleaning agent. For this experiment the same amount of polluted water will need to be treated using the enzymes.

Data Collection

Collecting data for this science fair project will require extra care, particularly when handling sewage water. Latex gloves, goggles, aprons and possibly even rubber boots will be needed.

Samples will be taken from pre-treated water and from treated water in both experiments. Each sample will then be tested under a microscope. Particle counts and microbe counts will be taken. Other tests can be run that involve using litmus test strips or dye reactor tests. This supplemental data can add to the value of your science fair project.

Data Analysis

The analysis of the data will start by organizing all of the findings in a table. This will make extracting statistics like mode, median and mean from the data much easier to do. Students will then need to determine the improvement rates for each treatment method and the after the fact particle suspension rates and microbe counts for each test. These results can then be compared to see which method is more effective at cleaning polluted sewage water.

Conclusion

The conclusions that are drawn need to be backed up with both data collected by the student and by research findings drawn by other scientists. The student will also need to evaluate the validity of their data by examining the design of their experiment and determining if it had any flaws. Finally the student will need to make suggestions about what additional research needs to be conducted, such as comparing enzyme water treatment practices to charcoal filtration treatment practices.