Kids' Science Challenge

Update on new turf and grass research results

water — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:54:42 +0000

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.

Plant Study Results!

water — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:38:04 +0000

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!

seti — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:40:29 +0000

New sounds coming up soon!

The City of San Francisco Says My Kids’ Science Challenge Rocks!

water — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:05:52 +0000

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

water — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:48:59 +0000

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.

My Science Project With Dr. Adina Paytan is On KGO-TV

water — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:36:08 +0000

It was very exciting to see me on TV explaining my project. You can see the video from KGO TV by clicking here.

I’m looking forward to accomplishing this big study. My water samples are at Dr. Adina’s lab in UC Santa Cruz, and we are starting to get preliminary results from the first 10 samples. I’ll let you know as soon as we get all of the results back.

Radio Disney

skateboard — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:52:14 +0000

My sister and I did a 30 minute spot for Radio Disney. They said it will be on Saturday morning. Sorry I don’t know what time but she did say it would be early. We had a great time. She made it very easy for both of us. I think it was because she was great but it might be because I have done a lot of interviews. Either way I highly recommend it.

Thanks Professor Schmitt

skateboard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Today my class made skateboards that Create A Skate gave us. We sanded, and sanded, and sanded. We put finish on them. They look great and next we get to decorate them. The class has learned about skateboards, the math to build them, and about wood strength. You should ask your school if you can do the Create A Skate program. It is great fun and didn’t seem like school at all.

Morning TV

skateboard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:07:44 +0000

My whole family got up and we did a segment or the News LIVE!!! Yikes. It was fun and I got to talk about everything but it was weird too because she didn’t talk to me before so I didn’t know what to think.

Home but not to rest

skateboard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:04:59 +0000

We got home from CA at about 1 in the morning. We had so much fun I learned so much. I have to be on the local news in two days at 5:45 am. That is early.