Sewers, global warming few of provocative science fair topics

Posted 3/18/14

Do sewers really reduce, or eliminate, pollution from ponds and streams, or do septic systems and cesspools do the job?

That sounds like a question that might be asked by those debating the need …

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Sewers, global warming few of provocative science fair topics

Posted

Do sewers really reduce, or eliminate, pollution from ponds and streams, or do septic systems and cesspools do the job?

That sounds like a question that might be asked by those debating the need to extend Warwick sewers, but it’s not.

Warwick Vets freshman Angus Nathan, who lives on Longmeadow Avenue in a section of the city slated to get sewers in the next several years, decided to find out.

He’s not the only young mind to be asking questions.

LaSalle Academy freshman and Smithfield resident Alex Philips fears the effects of global warming and he wants to reduce the use of fossil fuels, but he was wondering whether the growth of bioenergy crops that are used to produce ethanol could be accelerated.

And then there’s Nathania Ampansah, a sophomore at Times2 Academy in Providence. She has an interest in robots, but also dreams of being a pediatrician. She questioned whether her two interests could be melded to help children and adults who have lost a limb.

All three students were winners in the Rhode Island Science and Engineering Fair held Saturday and Sunday at the Knight Campus of CCRI. Mark Fontaine has seen the fair decline in numbers in the 18 years he’s run the event.

“There’s just less kids,” he said Sunday, as a steady stream of students, parents and spectators weaved between tables of displays with students standing in front of them ready to explain their project. This year, 277 students competed in the junior and senior divisions, a decline of more than 200 from the mid-1990s.

But Fontaine concludes from what fair judges tell him, the caliber of the projects is stronger and due to the involvement of Raytheon, the fair’s major sponsor, there is an increasing level of interest in the engineering side of the event. Fontaine describes engineering as “building things to solve problems” and science as “figuring out the world the way it is.” He teaches at Times2 and Ampansah is one of his students.

“Nobody plans to become an amputee,” Ampansah said when asked why she sought to develop a robot that would respond to muscle reactions. The robot, looking like a lobster claw mounted on a box of motors, was connected by thin wires leading to sensors taped to her arm. By flexing her arm muscles, she was able to close the robot’s claw.

Fontaine expects Ampansah to be one of those students to take the project further. He named her as one to likely use a 3D printer to take the robot to the next level.

Ampansah laughed when asked if her robot might answer multiple-choice questions and fill in for her in class. She hasn’t developed that robot yet.

Philips’ project involved growing switch grass that can be used to produce ethanol under a series of controlled conditions. He started off by cloning the grass so that it was identical in each of his studies. He then compared growth rates of the study groups using different levels of fertilizers as well as genetically changing the grasses. The final step was to measure the plant material, which he did using photographs and counting green pixels. He found genetic alternations did not impact the level of plant material.

“This is not a hoax,” he said of global warming. “The future of our society is at stake. Let’s work to make people less dependent on fossil fuels.”

Philips is thinking he may want to make such research his life’s work. It’s a choice between that and being a medical doctor.

Nathan is also concerned by the future of the environment. His study “Do Sewers Reduce Fecal Matter?” entailed taking water tests at Buckeye Brook, Mill Cove, Warwick Pond and Little Pond. He had no doubts to his finding that sewers greatly reduce fecal matter. Over three weeks to a month, he took readings at all locations. Those in neighborhoods with sewers showed minimal traces of fecal matter. The worst was downstream in Buckeye Brook with a watershed area that includes Nathan’s neighborhood.

“I think we should get sewers,” he said, “because there are cesspools and it’s really nasty with the smallest rain and it overflows.”

Nathan has an interest in forensics, although it’s early for him to be making career decisions.

Grant winners in the Junior division from Warwick schools are: first, Madeline Hopkins, St. Peter; and second place, Kara Quinn and Matthew Smith of St. Peter. Senior division grant winners are: first, Joshua Cliff, Hendricken; second, Nicholas Berg, John Beretta, Michael Moreira, Paul Hong, Dylan Moran, Jarrad Grossguth and Declan Smith of Hendricken and Noah Locke, Angus Nathan, Nick Leland and Robbie Pierce of Vets. Third grant winners: Max Hempe and Ryan Miech of Hendricken.

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