EPICS Project Charter

Statement of Purpose

The 50th Anniversary of Goose Creek being designated as a scenic river is being celebrated this coming September at Aldie Mill in family festival that is free and open to the public. The event is intended to teach children and adults about all the ways Goose Creek Association is working in partnership with other local environmental organizations and community members to protect our creek.

Stream monitoring is just one of the ways that people can get involved in helping track evidence of pollutants in the water. This involves gathering water samples to identify and categorize the macroinvertebrate that are present. There is a formula to analyze how "tolerant" these insects are to pollutants in order to determine if that area of the creek is healthy or not.

Stakeholders

The Goose Creek Association has asked our engineering class to design and build an educational and interactive display that can engage the community about the importance of stream monitoring. This project will be on display at the 50th Anniversary Family Festival. Expected participants include kids ranging in age from 4 to 12 along with adults. The Goose Creek Association will benefit from this product because they can use it in a wide range of venues to both educate and excite the public about stream monitoring. By empowering others to take action and keep Goose Creek clean, all of our regional inhabitants including people and animals will benefit.

Design Requirements

The design will need to be easily set up on a table top that will measure approximately 2 feet deep. It will also need to be easily stored so the Goose Creek Association can use it over and over again. It has to be durable and safe since children are going to be interacting with this display. In order to appeal to a younger audience, it will be attention grabbing, colorful, and fun!

Duration of the Project

The project will take approximately 6 weeks to plan out the design and then 6 weeks to build out the final product.

Initial Prototypes

Group 1: Betsy and Aglaé

Group 4: Grace and Tess

Second Prototypes

Project Specification and Requirements

Project Material List

Team 1: Betsy, Aglae, and Marina

Project Material List:

• Stainless steel woven wire

• 16qt plastic storage box container

• 3 in blue nylon net

• Mini water pump

Formal Requirements

The Goose Creek Association gave us all several requirements for this project. First, the design had to be engaging while also teaching adults and children about stream monitoring. Second, the whole design had to be able to fit on a table, so it could be on display at the 50th Anniversary Family Festival. Children will be in attendance at the festival; thus, the project must be safe and kid-friendly.

As a group, we also had some requirements for our design. We wanted to teach stream monitoring through a game that simplified the process. To make the whole process realistics, we need to have fake bugs of varying pollution tolerance level. The fake bugs need to be color coded, so people could tell the tolerance level of the bug. The design should also have a water element so participants have to "fish" the fake bugs out of the container. If possible, we want to have a water pump in the design. This would keep the water moving around, so the fake bugs might not be still at the bottom of the container.

Team 2: Hako, Joy, and Emily

Design Specifications

Our project's purpose is to model out the stream monitoring system and to help people understand the importance of stream monitoring system.

Team 3: Liliana, EG, Tess, and Grace

Prior Art:

The larger the riparian zone and the more vegetation within it, the more effective it is in its service to the river/stream. That is why we have trees in our protoype.

The PVC pipe is used to represent the river or stream