challenge 22
#FluxSTEAM22
Clean Water – Watersheds
For this challenge, you will explore ways to improve our water quality by studying factors that affect stream health.
Did you ever wonder where our drinking water comes from? Or why we should worry about stream pollution? How do we know when a stream is healthy? In this challenge, you will learn what factors that affect stream health. What could you do, invent, or innovate to help reduce water/stream pollution? Could it be a clever way to reuse plastics, a method to reduce the use of fertilizers, or something to keep polluted runoff from getting into streams?
Join us as we team up with Riverbend Environmental Ed Center and the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit as we explore stream health, drinking water, macroinvertebrates, and watersheds.
YOU WILL EXPLORE:
- Watersheds
- Stream Health
- Macroinvertebrates
YOU WILL CREATE:
- A method, invention, prototype to help reduce pollution related to stream health/water quality.
- A short video or images (Max. 1:30 minutes) that explains what you made.
STREAM HEALTH AND WATERSHED RESOURCES
- All About Macroinvertebrates – https://www.macroinvertebrates.org/
- Model My Watershed – https://www.macroinvertebrates.org/
- PA Department of Environmental Protection – Macroinvertebrates https://gis.dep.pa.gov/macroinvertebrate/index.html
- What Watershed Do You Live In? – https://www.dep.pa.gov/Citizens/JustForKids/Water/Watershed/Pages/Live.aspx
Understanding The Problem
Runoff and Pollution
Scientists and environmental managers break pollution into two categories: point source and nonpoint source pollution. Direct contamination of waterways, such as industrial waste pouring from a factory drain into a river, is an example of point source pollution. Pollutants such as motor oil leaked on parking lots, plastic grocery bags, pesticides, fertilizers, detergents, and sediments are known as nonpoint source pollutants.
Stormwater runoff from nonpoint source pollution is one of the most significant threats to aquatic ecosystems in the United States. As water runs over and through the watershed, it picks up and carries contaminants and soil. If untreated, these pollutants wash directly into waterways carried by runoff from rain and snowmelt. These contaminants can infiltrate groundwater and concentrate in streams and rivers, ultimately being carried down the watershed and into the ocean. Nonpoint source pollution is linked to the formation of large dead zones (areas with minimal oxygen) in the ocean and also threatens coral reef ecosystems around the world.
HOW TO ENTER
- Share a video or picture of your invention/solution/idea to improve stream health or prevent water pollution. (Max 01:30)
- Post the video or images on social media (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.) Tag Flux.
- Twitter @Fluxspace.io
- Instagram @Fluxspace_io
- Facebook (search for page Flux.)
- Tag sharpen.design
- Include the correct hashtags #FluxSTEAM22
- See a great example from last season to the right.
Brainstorm
What idea/invention/initiative would help prevent stream pollution? How would it work? What would it be made out of?
Prototype - Build It
Build your invention/idea/initiative! In most cases you will have to create a prototype – a smaller version of your invention that helps you test, share, explain your invention. Maybe it’s not a physical object but a website or flyer? Remember – It’s ok if it is not a working prototype.
Share It
Share your idea. Take pictures or film a short (Max 1:30 min video) showing off your polyhedra and what you used to make it. Use #FluxSTEAM22 and tag @Fluxspace.io on twitter or instagram (Flux. on Facebook)
A BIG THANK YOU TO:
For questions, comments or concerns please email Ryne@fluxspace.io
SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES.
ryne@fluxspace.io
610-277-7100