PERFORMANCE OUTCOME:
Asks specific testable scientific questions about a significant global science issue. Questions build on an evaluation of prior interpretations of evidence, a model, engineering design, or the premise of an argument. In my freshman Biology class, we went to 3 different locations to take water samples. My group was tasked with observing biodiversity and finding salinity levels in the bodies of water. When we returned to the classroom, we did a project about our data findings, and how they relate to each other. Salinity is the dissolved concentration of of salt in a body of water, measured in ppt, or parts per trillion. Pace Bend had the highest salinity level, Mansfield Dam was second, and Inks Lake had the lowest salinity level. Mansfield Dam was the least diverse, followed by Pace Bend and Inks Lake being the most diverse. The levels only varied between the sites by a few decimals. Over the past 20 years, salinity levels in these areas have maintained a mostly constant level. During the big drought in 1999-2002, salinity levels rose because of a loss of water which caused the concentration of salt to be higher. Some ways that nature contributes to salinity levels are from the soil at the bottoms of lakes which have natural salt that gets in the water. Some salt is a natural component in most landscapes. This project taught me a lot about what is needed to keep an ecosystem thriving, and I learned that very specific conditions are necessary for keeping organisms alive. It ties to the performance outcome because we were asked to find ties between biodiversity and salinity in bodies of water, which is a testable scientific question, and a global issue. It is important that the biodiversity in ecosystems are stable, so that all of the organisms living there can get the proper nutrition they need. We can help keep stable by not continuing to check them and making sure they are regulated. |
|
|
|