Biology Practical and Term Project

4. Diary of a Polluter

a. You are the polluter in this experience. b. Keep a daily log (one day) of the types and amounts (if knowable) of pollution you are personally responsible for. c. Remember that after you stand up from bed in the morning almost every activity of your day is going to produce some kind of pollution. Personal pollution could include: water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, heat pollution, solid waste pollution, hazardous waste pollution, etc. d. Sit down and reflect back over the log you created and what it means to you.

5. Energy Audit of Living Quarters

a. Locate the electric meter that records energy use in your living quarters. Take a 24-hour reading (difference between original reading and the reading 24 hours later). Note the day/s of the week measured. This will be your baseline value.

b. Make a list of all the electrical appliances that are used frequently and where they are located. Choose some of the electrical appliances you consider to be unnecessary and that you would be willing to not use for a 24 hour period. Don’t use them on the day of your experiment. Select a time (should be same day/s of the week you when your established your baseline value) you can go without using the chosen appliances and then don’t use them for a 24 hour period. Be sure to take a reading of the electric meter when you begin the period of non use and 24 hours later. Compare the first 24 hour reading (with normal use) and the 24 hour reading (period of non use). Compute the energy savings between the two periods. Interpret the results.

c. Locate all the incandescent light bulbs in your living quarters and note their wattage. Create a plan to replace them all with equivalent wattage compact fluorescent light bulbs and compute the amount of electricity (in Watts) per bulb you could save if you made the switch. Add the amounts of the individual bulb replacements (in Watts) to get a grand total of energy savings for a year if you made the switch.

d. Find out the cost being charged the homeowner or renter for electricity in cents per kilowatt hour. Calculate the amount of money you would save if you didn’t use the electrical appliances you frequently use in one year.

e. If you switched all the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, how much money would you save in one year?

f. What are your reasons for not wanting to make some of the savings that you discovered? What are some of the changes you will consider some day?

6. Water Conservation Experience

a. Locate a dripping water faucet (or set a faucet to drip). Collect the water that drips from the faucet over a selected period of time (in a container sufficient to hold the water). Calculate the amount of water (in gallons) lost per unit time. Calculate how much water would be lost in one year from this drip.

b. Determine the cost of water per thousand gallons of water (from local water board or a water bill). Calculate the cost of the drip per year from the information you have.

c. A variation is to determine the amount and cost of the water you use in taking your shower regularly. You will need to set the shower faucet as you normally do; record the time in minutes it takes you to shower; determine the amount of water used (by catching it and measuring it somehow) in one minute; and then calculate the savings per year using the procedure outlined above for the dripping faucet.

d. Another variation is to measure the amount of water used by taking your regular shower and comparing it with the amount of water consumed in taking a “military shower” (alternately turn the water off and on to save as much water as you can). Calculate the cost of water for one year to take your regular shower versus a military shower.