My project is underway!

I selected a local pond rather than using many different water sources as I originally planned. I realized that managing all of these water samples would overcomplicate the data I was attempting to collect. It would also be too difficult to travel to different sources due to the pandemic.

I collected a water sample from a nearby pond that collects drainage from the streets. The pond is stocked with fish so it should have plenty of micro-organisms to observe. There is also the potential for chemical runoff that will not be removed by the filters.

Here are some photos of the pond and of my equipment.

I have had to make some revisions to my project’s methodology due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some items are currently unavailable that I had planned to utilize for my investigation. The proctor & gamble water purification tablets are out of stock, this is unfortunate as they have a unique coagulant that can remove particulates from solution creating clear, sanitized water. This would have been extremely interesting to test against other physical filters. As a substitute, I will utilize Coleman brand water purification tablets that sanitize water but do not contain any method of removing particulates from the solution. This will likely appear when samples are viewed under a microscope and could skew results. Also, due to the pandemic, I had to purchase a low-cost commercially available microscope which may not be as effective at viewing samples as a laboratory-grade microscope. It will be interesting to see what effect these changes have on the results.