LAB NOTEBOOK

Final Entry (June 2, 2022)

I have officially finished my MARC project! We gave our final presentation about a week ago on zoom, which felt like a full circle, as we watched last year's presentations on zoom. However, it is a very gratifying feeling to have wrapped up these two years. Looking back, I am very excited I did this project on greywater because it has made me think more critically about my practices at home and ways we could potentially reuse water. I think by engaging so deeply in this project, it has inspired me to advocate more for finding ways to reuse water because it is so relevant here in California as we suffer from the impacts of droughts and wildfires.

Entry #7 (February 21, 2022)

I have officially begun collecting data. I planted my plants and have watered them with all three types of water: tap, unfiltered, and filtered. I sadly feel like the filter only does so much and that chlorination is going to be a necessary step into being able to use greywater to measure crops. However, in moving science forward, I think recreating someone else's experiment could help the field move forward as well. Basing my filter off of someone else's helps validate the science behind their experiment.

Entry #6 (November 3, 2021)

I have almost completed my methods attempting to finish up planning and nailing down my experiment before winter break so that after I can begin. Something that has been hard to figure out is where I will be getting my greywater. I figured out that I can use the greywater from the two tanks we have on campus that collects rainwater to collect greywater from the showers in the locker rooms of the pool.

Entry #5 (September 14, 2021)

I have made a lot of headway on my project proposal. I am pretty much finished with the sections. I have also organized all of my articles and notes, so I have everything in Mendeley and sorted into folders. I recently reached out to someone who could help me further my research on greywater and help figure out which variables to test (whether it is feasible for me to use untreated greywater on annual crops or be able to get lightly treated greywater).

Entry #4 (August 30, 2021)

I am in the process of organizing my sources into a project proposal. I think in order to really progress my project I will need to prioritize finishing my project proposal and methods. Something that I know will be a challenge will be getting treated greywater to use for my experiment. On that note though, I mentioned that this was going to be a struggle to my mom who told me about an article she read in the Marin IJ. The article was on how the Marin Municipal Water District set up a recycled water filling station to water plants and lawns. This would honestly be a perfect source for my project. I could potentially asses if the water is safe to water your vegetable garden using different water analysis methods I studied last year in environmental.

Entry #3

I now have pretty much narrowed down the variables I am going to test in greywater, but, am really struggling to figure out if it is feasible to be able to test different biological treatment systems. From the systems, I have looked at so far (membrane bioreactor (MBR) and fluidized bed reactor (FBR)), both do not seem feasible to use. So, that means I have to expand my search to potentially less accurate greywater treatments in order to reach and meet that goal of finding affordable, yet efficient systems to treat greywater.

This week we are also working on putting together a video of our projects and what we have found and researched so far, so I wrote a storyboard and hopefully begin to make the video soon! Stay tuned.

Entry #2

I have been focusing a lot about my methods and experimental section. So far my variables that I am looking at are:

Independent:

Type of plant
- Underground (carrots)

- Partially ground (lettuce)
- Off ground (tomatos)
Type of biological water treatment systems
Solutions of greywater
- 25% 50% 75% 100%

Dependent:

Plant growth
- Mass
- Plant height
Salinity
Fecal coliforms
Chemicals → surfactants
Metals

I am struggling in deciding whether to test different greywater solutions and biological treatment systems or only one. I think the difficulty is finding relatively simple and easy treatments for greywater. If that were the case I think I could focus on both of those methods

Entry #1

I have currently been working on editing my project proposal. I am revising my background section attempting to start broadly and then narrow it down into my specific topic. I have also been reading a couple of the article's method's sections to try and develop ideas for an experimental plan.

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