Scientific Method and the Problem-Solving Approach
| Scientific Method and the Problem-Solving Approach | Writing Assignment 2 |
3/25/2012 |
Scientific Method and the Problem-Solving Approach
My hypothesis for the small amount of information would be the reason for the fewer fish and higher amount of algae may be due to algae blooms. Algae blooms are due to a rapid increase of algae and too much nitrogen in the water. From this information, I can deduce that there is a runoff problem from one or more of the farms where fertilizer is being spread and is entering into the lake. This in turn creates massive algae growth which not only blocks out sunlight but also requires mass amount of oxygen. The fish, having little oxygen, die leaving fewer fish in the lake.
My prediction would be if they do not stop the farms runoff into the lake there will be not fish left in the lake within months. It also could cause a problem for who ever is eating the fish that are coming out of this lake. But this problem could also go deeper than just fish in a lake because this runoff could be going in drinking water that the animals on the farm are drinking. And In turn could be in the meat these farms are selling to customers and this could make a lot of people sick.
To solve this problem, the nitrogen runoff must be reduced and the lake will return, overtime, to normal. An experiment to do would be to set up 2 separate tanks of water introduce a large amount of algae into one very rapidly, and a small amount of algae in the other, and then add nitrogen into the tank with the large amount of algae while recording the oxygen levels in each tank. This will show if issue is going to be the algae or the algae and the runoff from the
3/25/2012 |
Scientific Method and the Problem-Solving Approach
My hypothesis for the small amount of information would be the reason for the fewer fish and higher amount of algae may be due to algae blooms. Algae blooms are due to a rapid increase of algae and too much nitrogen in the water. From this information, I can deduce that there is a runoff problem from one or more of the farms where fertilizer is being spread and is entering into the lake. This in turn creates massive algae growth which not only blocks out sunlight but also requires mass amount of oxygen. The fish, having little oxygen, die leaving fewer fish in the lake.
My prediction would be if they do not stop the farms runoff into the lake there will be not fish left in the lake within months. It also could cause a problem for who ever is eating the fish that are coming out of this lake. But this problem could also go deeper than just fish in a lake because this runoff could be going in drinking water that the animals on the farm are drinking. And In turn could be in the meat these farms are selling to customers and this could make a lot of people sick.
To solve this problem, the nitrogen runoff must be reduced and the lake will return, overtime, to normal. An experiment to do would be to set up 2 separate tanks of water introduce a large amount of algae into one very rapidly, and a small amount of algae in the other, and then add nitrogen into the tank with the large amount of algae while recording the oxygen levels in each tank. This will show if issue is going to be the algae or the algae and the runoff from the