Gavyne's Science Fair Project

I finally finished my science fair project! I want to thank all the patient people for waiting for a new post on our blog. It was hard work, and my parents were a big help.

Question:
Which climate — arctic, desert, tropical, temperate — has the fastest rate of decomposition?

Purpose:
To observe how different climates affect decomposition of organic, processed, and synthetic materials.

Hypothesis:
I think the desert will have the fastest rate of decomposition.

Materials:
• Apple slices
• Cardboard pieces
• Gogurt wrapper
• Containers
• Water
• Potting soil
• Pencil
• Notebook
• Camera
• 4 Thermometers
• 1 Cap
• Scissors
• Legos
• Towel
• Camera plug
• Computer

Procedure:
Build Climates:
1) Fill 3 containers with 2.5 inches of potting soil; use cactus soil for one of the containers.
2) Freeze 1.5 cups of water in a 4th container.
3) Attach thermometers to each container.
4) Add 1 apple slice, 1 square inch of cardboard, and 1 piece of Gogurt wrapper.
5) Cap the rainforest climate to keep water inside.
6) Water the temperate and rainforest with a .5 teaspoon of water once a week.



Record Results:
1) Hang a towel as a backdrop for the climates.
2) Take a single shot of each climate once a day at 5pm.
3) Download, edit, and save the pictures in a folder.
4) Rate amount of decomposition using scale shown below for organic (apple), processed (cardboard), and synthetic (Gogurt wrapper) materials.
5) Continue for 13 days.
6) Create 3 graphs, 1 for each type of materials.
7) Compare the graphs to figure out which climate has the most decomposition.



Results:
These are graphs showing what happened over the days:





These next pictures show day 1 and day 13 for each climate:









Conclusion:
I found out I was wrong about the desert having the most decomposition. Actually, the temperate and rainforest had the most because of the mold. That happens because the bacteria can speed in the heat and water. The arctic can’t have bacteria because they freeze and die. The processed material decomposed a little bit, but is slow. The Gogurt container didn’t decompose at all. If you aren’t going to recycle, reduce your consumption of plastic. But, always reuse or recycle whenever possible.


Here is a picture of my board. It's a little blurry but you get the idea:



Resources:
• World Climate
• www.earthmatters4kids.com
• www.factmonster.com
• GCSE Rates of Chemical Decomposition
• Kyle Stich, my dad
• Renee Stich, my mom
• Mr. Craig Martin, a former teacher