The Ohio Journal of - The Ohio Academy of Science

A-42 The Ohio Journal of Science
Vol. 112(1)
1nM solutions produced a limited growth with only 143%
and 147% increases, respectively. These results imply
that diatoms can react to small amounts of iron in their
environment and the optimal concentration to remove the
most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere was around 5
nM. These findings suggest that iron fertilization may be
adopted as a carbon sequestration strategy.
Poster Board No. 026 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SOLAR
DISINFECTION METHOD (SODIS) IN TREATING CONTAMINATED
WATER. Osama Alkhalili, osamaalkhalili8@yahoo.com, 4691
Fairway Lane, Sylvania Ohio 43560 (Maumee Valley Country
Day School).
The lack of access to safe drinking water in undeveloped
nations demands finding affordable water-disinfection
methods. This project investigates the effectiveness
of the solar disinfection method (SODIS) in treating
contaminated water. It is hypothesized that exposing
contaminated water to sunlight for a specific time will
be effective in disinfecting the contaminated water. All
tools were sterilized by boiling prior to collecting a water
sample from Lake Olander in Sylvania, Ohio. Two clean
16-oz PET plastic bottles were filled with the lake water,
placed onto a dark, metal sheet beneath a lamp with a
Daylight Blue Reptile bulb and exposed to UV-A light at
350 nm for 12 and 24 hours, respectively. A third PET
bottle was filled with filtered lake water using a Whitman
Filter Paper and exposed to UV-A light for 24 hours. One
cup of the lake water was boiled for 15 minutes. Samples
were cultured on tryptic soy agar plates. Bacterial colonies
in each plate were counted after 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours.
The entire experiment was repeated two additional times.
In the untreated sample, the average numbers of bacterial
colonies were 95, 170, 320, and 500 at 24, 48, 72, and 96
hours, respectively. Boiled sample showed no bacterial
growth over the 96-hour period. The 12-hour SODIS sample
resulted in an average bacterial growth of 30, 45, 75 and
130 colonies at 24, 36, 48 and 96 hours, respectively. The
unfiltered 24-hour SODIS sample resulted in an average
bacterial growth of 5, 8, 12, and 22 colonies at 24, 48,
72, and 96 hours, respectively, while the filtered 24-hour
sample had 2, 4,7, and 12 colonies at 24, 48, 72, and 96
hours, respectively. Results showed that boiling is the most
effective method for disinfecting contaminated water. The
SODIS method could be fairly effective, if optimal exposure
time is used. The turbidity of the water may reduce the
efficiency of the SODIS method, which can be corrected
easily by water filtration. These findings suggest that the
SODIS can be adopted as a water-disinfection method
in undeveloped nations that do not have the means and
infrastructures to clean and disinfect their drinking water.
Poster Board No. 027 THE EFFECTS OF GREEN MATERIALS
UTILIzED AS ABSORBENTS IN OIL SPILL CLEAN UP. Hannah A.
Barlow, mbarlow25@yahoo.com, 7245 zwickle Rd., Logan OH
43138. (Logan-Hocking Middle School)
This project began out of concern over the 2010 Gulf
of Mexico oil spill cleanup efforts, to determine which
materials would best absorb oil. It was hypothesized that
“green” materials could be used to effectively absorb oil.
Materials used were 1.5 cattail seed heads, 2 corn cobs, 4
pine cones (Spruce), and 1 cup (227kg) Lake Huron zebra
mussel shells. These “green” materials were crushed to
measure one-half cup (113kg), and then placed into each
of the one cup (227kg) capacity funnels with 6 ½ inch
(16.5cm) necks. Next, one-half cup (118ml) of used motor
oil was poured into each of the funnels to drain into one
cup (250ml) glass beakers. Cattail seed heads absorbed 2.5
oz. (75ml) of oil or approximately 60%. Corn cobs absorbed
2.02 oz. (60 ml) of oil or approximately 50%. Pine cones
absorbed .51 oz. (15ml) or approximately 13%. Zebra
mussel shells absorbed .34oz. (10ml) or approximately
less than 1%. These results indicate that it would take
approximately 3 cattails to absorb one cup (236ml) of oil.
Based on 16 cups (3784ml) per 1 gallon, it would take 48
cattails to absorb one gallon of oil, and therefore 2,016
cattails per barrel of oil based on a 42 gallon barrel. Since
60,000 barrels of oil were leaked daily during the 2010 Gulf
oil spill, it would take approximately 120,960,000 cattails
to absorb one days worth of oil from the Gulf oil spill, or
11,007,360,000 cattails to absorb the 91 days worth of oil
spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. This research demonstrates
that green technology could be considered and used as an
environmentally sound solution for future oil spills.
Schar Room 266
Poster Board No. 033 AQUATIC OIL SPILL CLEAN-UP. Abigail
L Myers, myersa13@embarqmail.com, 4251 N County Line
Rd, Sunbury, OH 43074 (Big Walnut Middle School)
Oil produced offshore to meet energy needs is transported
through aquatic environments. In offshore drilling and
production (e.g., BP Deepwater Horizon) and oil transport
(e.g., Exxon Valdez), accidental spills occur. Therefore,
cleaning up spills is necessary – one method is to use
sorbents. For a sorbent to be successful in an aquatic
environment, it must have a high level of oleophilicity and
be hydrophobic. Absorption and adsorption are processes
that can remove oil from water. Through absorption, oil fills
in cavities in the sorbent and through adsorption oil sticks
to the material surface. This experiment investigated how
well synthetic (polypropylene, polyurethane, and polyester)
and organic (cotton, straw, and sawdust) sorbents remove
oil from water by absorption and/or adsorption. Initial
research led to the hypothesis: synthetic sorbents would
remove more oil than natural organic sorbents, with
polypropylene being the best. Each sorbent (1.5g) was
placed into a beaker containing an oil slick (20 ml) floating
on the water surface (150 ml), timed (5 min), and removed.
The masses of used sorbent and fluids were determined,
and volumes of remaining fluids were measured. The
synthetic sorbents demonstrated greater effectiveness than
natural organic sorbents, with a mean weight ratio (mass
of oil removed to mass of sorbent used) of 9.5, compared
to 7.9 for organic sorbents. Based on this experiment,
polyester removed the most oil, with a weight ratio of 13.5,
followed by cotton (12.2), polypropylene (9.4), sawdust
(6.6), polyurethane (5.5) and straw (4.9). Additional work
could include revised methods to simulate wave action.
Poster Board No. 034 LEAD CONTENT OF SCHOOL DRINKING
WATER. Halle A. Miller, millerbdhc@aol.com, 13684 Janell
Drive, Columbia Station OH 44028 (Columbia High School)
The goal of this project was to discover how the lead content
of drinking water varied between school buildings of
different ages. The objective was to determine if there was
a direct correlation between school age and the lead content
of its drinking water. The hypothesis was that if a school is
older, the lead content of the drinking water will be greater
because of different piping and soldering methods used in
the past. Three water samples were collected from each of
ten different public high schools from a restroom sink. Each
sample was collected from a faucet running cold water and
the test tubes were sealed with Parafilm. A stopwatch was
used to time thirty seconds between samples. The samples
were tested at the Avon Lake Water Filtration Plant, with
help from a qualified scientist, using the graphite furnace
of an Atomic-Absorption Spectrometer. Standard samples
were analyzed for calibration and then conducted on Test
Group #1. A blank sample was run to recalibrate the
machine and the process was repeated for Test Group #2
and then Test Group #3. The standard deviation results in
parts per billion (site one 2.68ppb, site two 0.40ppb, site
three 0.35ppb, site four 0.91ppb, site five 9.45ppb, site six
0.38 ppb, site seven 9.45ppb, site eight 0.68ppb, site nine
0.17ppb, site ten 0.69ppb), were under the EPA specified
15ppb. However, some of the raw samples reached levels
of 20.0ppb and 25.3ppb. The results were found to support
the hypothesis, on average. The schools built before 1967
had greater lead contents, on average, and the schools
built during or after 1967 had little to no lead detected in