• What was the mission or aim of your project?   

The aim for our experiment was to make an ecosystem with different species. We had to find the effect of pH level on the quantity of shrimp that survive in their non-ideal environment. 

• Why was this your mission?

This was our mission because we need to make ecosystems on Kepler 22b.  We thought of many different ideas to how to make a mission for our project. The best one we had was the one we did raising brine shrimps in different pH level. This would test out if microorganisms would be able to withhold their non-ideal climate. The idea was that we don't know how the water of Kepler 22b would be, there could be a different pH level than our ocean, or there can be harsh conditions.  different from Earth's. We also needed animals that didn't take up to much space while also being able to survive the trip, this is why microorganisms was our choice!

• What action/experiment did you take?

Our experiment was hatching sea monkeys in their ideal pH, then switching to a non-ideal pH level and seeing how the sea monkeys reacted.  We had 2 experiments, the first one was a complete fail. We had changed the pH level for the water then poured the eggs inside the beakers, none of the eggs hatched and they all smelt. For the second experiment, we created habitats consisting of 5 500ml beakers, where sea monkeys were raised in the same way for the first week, then after that we changed their pH for each 5 different beakers, we had an 10 pH, 9 pH, 8 pH, 6 pH, and 4 pH. 

• How did you use what you learned in grade 9 science in the design?

We used a lot of things that we learned during grade 9 science. The most obvious one is how to write a CER.  One step of our space camp was to write a CER format essay. Another thing I learned was how to make a well-structured hypothesis. This helped us make the base question of what we were trying to find. In addition, we learned what variables where, the independent, dependent, and control variable.  This helped us differentiate what we were going to measure, change, and keep the same. Another thing we learnt was how to make a results table. Without what we learnt our table wouldn't have been good, and wouldn't have been measuring what we need. Also, we learned how to make a diagram of the experiment. This gave us a good understanding of what we needed and what it would look like. Therefore, we used a lot of different things that we learned in grade 9 science, and without it we wouldn't have a very good space camp. 

• How does your project fit or connect with the other projects in the class?  Are we living sustainably on your chosen planet.

Our project connects with many different projects in the class. Firstly, for our project we needed to make an ecosystem, that required us to find a way to keep the animals alive. Other projects had to find a way to keep humans sheltered, so it was basically to find a way to keep living things alive at these planets. 

• How successful was your action (its OK if it didn't go as planned)?  Did you meet your goal?

It didn't go as we planned, but it did in the end. We had our first experiment all set up and we had started it. After a week, we realized that nothing was going to hatch, we had to throw everything out and then we had to start a new experiment. It was the same thing except that we would change the pH level after they hatched. We kind of achieved our goal. Our goal was that none of the eggs would die and they would all stay alive. That goal is almost impossible, but we got some sea monkeys, that were still alive, the 7.5 pH beaker actually had more sea monkeys than before we put pH. The whole point of our experiment goal was to try and see if sea monkeys would be a good choice to take with us to Kepler 22b, and I would say it would be a good choice if we can't find anything better.   

• What contributed to your groups' success (or lack of success)?

Our group was really stressed after the first experiment failed, we had to go back from 0 and we only had a week or two. Our whole group strived to make a poster board and create a new experiment in that limited time frame. We all cooped and made a very nice poster board as well as a very nice experiment. I think that if our first experiment went well, we would've been done early, and we would've made a much nicer poster board.

• What would you do differently if you could?

The thing I would do differently would be the poster board. Me(Adnane) took the poster board home on the weekend and worked on it for a bit. I figured out that it was small, so I went and bought a new one from dollarama, I had a soccer match so, I took it from Dollarama and went back home. On the next day, I realized that Walmart had a much bigger board, but it was already too late. I worked on the title at home, but I think if I had bought a bigger poster, it would've given us more space to space our things out, and we would've had a nicer poster board. 

The most obvious thing that we would do differently is to design our experiment better, since our first experiment was a failure. Chemical changes were made BEFORE the brine shrimp even hatched.  The brine shrimp never hatched even after 5 days, and it smelled really bad. We had to dump them out and design a better experiment. We sought to make chemical changes AFTER hatchlings were out and swimming, and as expected, worked. We would have done this earlier if we knew the side effects, we would have much more time to work on our project.

• Pitch a next phase for your project.

The next phase for our project is to test other ways species can react to new things, by adding more variables. We can alter temperature or effects from natural effects such as rain.

• Inspire a future group of students to pick up where you left off.

This project wasn't just helpful to us, but it was also fun. We got to raise sea monkeys in the class! Our whole group got to change pH level of water and also got to hatch some sea monkeys, this experiment was just the base of a whole new idea to grow ecosystems. Why you should pick up where we left off is because there are a ton of other animals or different other things you can test out to see if you can create an ecosystem in any other planet. Also, any type of animal or test you're doing is never wrong. So, any animal you want to test out would always work! 

• Why is this an important cause?  Why should they continue with it?

This experiment has a crucial cause if we want to leave to another planet. If we find ways to grow ecosystems on not just Kepler 22b, but any other planet, it can fill up a huge gap of what we need to go to another planet. People are thinking about what we will eat when we go to another planet, if we are able to grow ecosystems, it can provide for human well-being and quality of life, as well as, providing us with food and water, and also regulating the climate. 

• Where would you like to see it go next.

I would like to see this be tested in many different ways. Some species might die if we go further into this, but they will be helping us create a new ecosystem in a potential different world. The first thing I want people to try is to try different microorganisms or try out fish. They can create a table of what species survive on different pH levels and test it again and again for efficiency.  I also want to see it go to land animals too. We might not be able to find another planet like Kepler 22b where it's covered in water, so we might have to try land animals. A potential thing to test out is if a certain species can take a bit of air without dying, or if you give it another type of gas, would it still be alive and moving. There are many other ways this project can evolve and anyway you want to go from this would still work.