First, I want to thank all the Daphnia who gave their lives to prove my hypothesis! Daphnia are a small shrimp-like creature, about the size of a grain of salt. Scientists use them to do experiments because they reproduce quickly, so you always have alot on hand. And they are very sensitive to environmental pollutants, so they tell us if other water creatures might be affected by the same substances.
For my animal experiment I took the Daphnia and put 10 of them each in four bowls. In one bowl I put grass water; in another I put synthetic turf runoff water; in another I put spring water and in another I put tap water. All of the Daphnia in the tap water died within 24 hours. (I checked them about every four hours.) All of the Daphnia in the spring water and the grass water were alive after 24 hours. But in the turf runoff, the first time I ran this experiment 6 of the 10 Daphnia died within 24 hours. I ran the experiment again with just 10 Daphnia in grass water and 10 in turf runoff water, and again, all the grass water Daphnia survived. But 8 of the 10 Daphnia in the turf water died. This tells me that there is something in the turf that kills most of the Daphnia.
Our nutrient analysis from Dr. Adina Paytan’s lab show that there is a lot of zinc and some other heavy metals that the Daphnia may not appreciate, but we don’t know for sure what killed them.
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Update on new turf and grass research results
Claire Dworsky, Water Quality Project Winner
Plant Study Results!
Claire Dworsky, Water Quality Project Winner
Tonight is a big night for me — I’m getting ready to leave for soccer camp with many of the women soccer players from the U.S. World Cup team - Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Joy Fawcett — and I also harvested the carrots I grew from seed for the last five months. I started three groups of carrot seeds, one in water from a turf field, one in water from a grass field, and one with tap (plain) water from our sink.
In the beginning, I was surprised that the seeds grown with water runoff from synthetic turf grew fastest, and their greens grew tallest. I thought their carrots would be the biggest! The carrots grown with grass water struggled a little at first, and grew thinner greens on top. But they survived. The carrots grown with tap water grew more over the last couple weeks. I took the carrots out of their pots tonight, and we weighed and measured them.
Measuring Size of Tap Water Carrot
Measuring Size of Turf Water Carrots
Claire bagging the carrots to keep for Dr. Paytan's lab
The results: Turf water produced five carrots! But they were all quite thin, and measured 2″, 1″, 1.5″ and just under 1″. All together they weighed 1/8 oz. The greens were 9.5″ and 11″ tall. The seeds grown from grass water turned into — one forked carrot! It measured 1.5″ and weighed 1/8 oz. The surprise to me was that the carrot grown from plain tap water was the biggest. It was 2″ long, and weighed 1/4 oz., which is twice as big as the grass carrot and twice as much as the five skinny turf carrots! So tap water wins. When I see Professor Adina, I think she will help analyze the soil that the carrots grew in, and also the plants that grew from each of the different waters.
It is very interesting that these carrots were the start of my study - of what do the different types of water do to living things, how will growing the same seeds in three different waters result in different changes in the plants. I can see big differences between the three groups of carrots: the turf carrots had strong greens but wimpy carrots. The grass had a bigger carrot, but just one, and it struggled. The tap water carrot grew the biggest of all three. It will be interesting to see when Dr. Adina is able to use the instruments in her lab to see how the soils may have absorbed different chemicals from being watered with the different waters, and maybe the carrots will contain different chemicals.
Being a scientist is like being a detective!
The City of San Francisco Says My Kids’ Science Challenge Rocks!
Claire Dworsky, Water Quality Project Winner
I’m lucky to live in San Francisco, which is a great city that is surrounded by water on three sides. So people here really care about the environment. And they’re excited that I’m using science to find the real truth about what chemicals and bacteria can be found in both grass and synthetic turf soccer fields. Here are some pictures of the awards I received from our Mayor Gavin Newsom, and our Supervisor Bevan Dufty for winning the Kids Science Challenge, and for using science to find out answers that will help our city government to plan what is best for the environment in our city.
Plant Experiments are in Final Phase
Claire Dworsky, Water Quality Project Winner
Carrots - turf, tap and grass water-fed
In February I started growing carrots from seed in peet that was soaked in synthetic turf runoff water, grass soccer field runoff water, and plain old San Francisco tap water. I wanted to see which plants would grow best from which water. Here it is late June already! I have just finished the third grade. And my plants are finishing their growing cycle. The results so far are: synthetic turf carrots - 9 inches tall. Tap water carrots - 6 inches tall. Grass water carrots - 5 inches tall. Dr. Adina Paytan at UC Santa Cruz will examine the plants, their carrots, and the soil they have grown in. They have been watered every day with water from their type of field (or tap water.) I was surprised that the synthetic turf carrots have grown faster and taller than the rest.
