Our Watershed In Conjunction with the Ocean Institute and Miocean

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Our WatershedIn Conjunction with the Ocean
Institute and Miocean

• Presented by Mrs. Sanders
• Fifth Grade Class
• La Tierra Elementary School
• Principal - Dr. Callison

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La Tierra Elementary SchoolSaddleback Valley
Unified School District
Our school is located in Mission Viejo. Our
watershed is the Aliso Creek Watershed and it is
30.4 square miles large.
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Scientific Method

• We used the scientific method of having a
  question, making a hypothesis, conducting an
  experiment, and reaching a conclusion to find out
  more about our watershed.

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Question

• The question we have about our watershed is
  Which part of the water is cleaner the origin
  of Aliso Creek, the section of Aliso Creek by
  our school, or the area where Aliso Creek enters
  the ocean?

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Hypothesis

• After we had a question we created a hypothesis.
• The water at the origin of Aliso Creek will be
  cleaner than the water at La Tierra, and the
  water at La Tierra will be cleaner than the water
  at the exit of Aliso Creek into the ocean.

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Experiment

• To prove or disprove our hypothesis we started
  with observing our creek.
• Next we got water samples from the three sources
  the mountain origin, our part of the creek at La
  Tierra, and the ocean exit.
• We separated into small groups and each group
  conducted several experiments to test the health
  of our water.

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Observing the Creek

• When we walked down to our creek we found many
  common trash items.

Plastic Bag
Paper Cup
Plastic Bag
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Observing the Creek

• We also found several unusual objects in our water

Baseball Hat
Bicycle Tire
Sign
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Observing the Creek

• We, unfortunately, also saw wildlife living with
  the trash.

Crane
Ducks
Ducks
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Separating into GroupsGroup 1
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Separating into GroupsGroup 2
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Separating into GroupsGroup 3
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Tests

• Temperature
• Turbidity
• Dissolved Oxygen
• pH
• Nitrates
• Phosphates
• Coliform

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What is Temperature?

• Temperature is the level of heat or coldness of
  an object

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What is Turbidity?

• Is the measurement of the clarity of the water
• It shows how much stuff, such as clay, silt,
  organic and inorganic matter, is in the water

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What is Dissolved Oxygen?

• Dissolved oxygen is oxygen dissolved in the water
  that the animals use to breathe
• Healthy aquatic ecosystems contain high levels of
  oxygen
• High levels of bacteria and decomposing plants
  can cause the levels to decrease

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What is pH?

• pH tells us how acidic or basic the water is
• If the water is too acidic or too basic the
  plants and animals have a difficult time
  surviving
• Typical water pH is usually between 6.5 and 8.2

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What are Nitrates?
What are Phosphates?

• Nutrients used by all plants and animals to build
  protein

• Primary nutrient source
• High levels of this nutrient can lead to
  overgrowth of plants

• Difference between Nitrates and Phosphates?
• Phosphates come from sources that include human
  and animal waste, industrial pollution, and
  agricultural runoff
• Nitrates come from sources that include,
  decomposition of dead plants and animal, sewage,
  fertilizer, and agricultural runoff

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What is Coliform?

• Coliform is a naturally occuring bacteria in
  everybody's digestive track
• Coliform bacteria are rare or absent in
  unpolluted water. Because of this, it is a
  reliable indicator of water pollution

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Results

• Using the LaMotte low cost water monitoring kit,
  we placed our results on a scale of 1 to 4
• 1 being poor and 4 being excellent

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Temperature

• Our temperature results were slightly off because
  the samples of the origin and exit to the ocean
  were left in the classroom for several days this
  is why they are the same temperature
• Aliso Creeks school sample sat out in the
  classroom but for a much shorter period

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pH

• The pH of all three sites was good
• In fact the ocean scored slightly higher than the
  origin and the creek by the school
• This shows that all sites are in good health in
  regards to pH
• These results do not support our hypothesis

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Turbidity

• The results show that the water at the origin and
  at the ocean had excellent clarity, but that the
  water at our school had only fair clarity
• This means that Aliso Creek by our school had
  more particles in the water
• These results do not support our hypothesis

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Dissolved Oxygen

• Our results showed that the oxygen at the origin
  and our creek site were fair (2) and that the
  ocean was poor (1)
• These results tell us that our origin and our
  creek site are somewhat healthy, but that our
  ocean is not
• This supports the last section of our hypothesis,
  which states that our creek site is healthier
  than our ocean site.

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Nitrate

• With the Nitrates we had several errors. After
  doing two tests we realized that we needed 5 ml
  of water not 10 ml
• The results we were able to obtain showed that
  all testing sites got a score of 1
• This shows that the water is in poor health in
  regard to Nitrates
• These results do not support our hypothesis

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Phosphate

• Phosphates for the origin and the exit to the
  ocean were good, however, our school site was
  only fair
• This shows that the origin and the exit to the
  ocean are slightly healthier than our school site
• This does not support our hypothesis

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Coliform

• The results of our coliform test showed that
  there was coliform bacteria at all three test
  sites.
• This indicates pollution at all three sites.
• This does not support our hypothesis

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Conclusion

• When adding all the areas together and finding
  the mean (average) we found that our hypothesis
  was disproved
• The origin of Aliso Creek water was the
  healthiest, followed by the exit to the ocean,
  and finally the school site
• Unfortunately, we also found that all three test
  sites were only fair in relation to health

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What Happened?

• As a class we came up with several theories about
  why our results did not match up with our
  hypothesis
• Between here and the ocean there might be an
  estuary that absorbed some of the pollution
• Between here and the ocean there might be a slow
  portion of the river that allowed sediment and
  pollution to fall to the bottom of the river
• The samples were taken by different people and
  the result might have changed our data
• The samples were taken on different days and
  because of recent rainfall our results might
  have been effected.
• The area by our school might be more of a dumping
  site

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How Can We Improve Aliso Creek?

• Put recycle cans in the area around the creek to
  encourage people to recycle
• Get signs that remind people to not pollute
• Educate people of the community by creating a
  flyer that shows our findings
• Schedule a clean up day to clean up the creek
• Fence in the area around the creek
• Contact the news media about our creek situation
• Write an article in our school paper informing
  the student body of the creek situation