I piece of my best work I did since I have been at ACLC was a junior year science project that was about the changes of the bounce height of a basketball on different surfaces. I am proud of this project because when I completed the experiment, my results were not what I had guessed would happen, and I ended up learning a lot about this topic. The second project that I am sharing is an environmental project assigned in history about Bay Area Spare The Air Day Pollution. This project was really fun to do because I learned so much about how you can solve the problem of pollution in the Bay Area and how the problem was started mostly from factories in the community. The third project I am sharing is a GMO project from science class. We did a GMO project about cow milk that was interesting because I learned that their modifying the cow to make a new milk and the effect that has on the cow and people today. What i did for this project was i did research on it and found a lot of important thing that will benefit for this project.

Science Fair Project (physic)

Question: Bouncing Basketballs: How Much Energy would It Take to Dribbling on Different Surfaces?

Background Research: Dribbling a basketball takes up more energy on different surfaces than walking. It depends on many factors. When a basketball leaves the hand and hits the floor, it bounces back and returns towards the hand.

Hypothesis: If we bounce a basketball on these three different surface like wood,concrete,carpet the height of the bounce will be change on than different surfaces with the wood causing the ball to bounce higher than the other surfaces, because the ball will have more energy when bouncing off the wood.

Materials:

Different surfaces to bounce a basketball on. They should be steady, fixed surfaces: carpet, concrete, and wood.
lab notebook
basketball
data table
meter stick

Procedure:

In order to measure and record the basketball’s bounce, I followed these steps:

tape 2 meter sticks to a wall in order to measure height of bounce

Choose a surface
Hold the basketball so that the bottom of the ball was lined up with the top of the tape mark (height of 2 meters) on the meter stick before dropping the ball.
Drop the ball
Use meter stick to measure height of bounce
Recorded data in table
Repeat 3 times on a given surface
Repeat steps for other surfaces

Bibliography

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/energy/U5L1c.cfm

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/elacol.html

http://14kasie.edublogs.org/2012/02/16/physics-of-dribbling-a-basketball/

Background

Playing a game of basketball can be great exercise, and one part of that workout comes from just dribbling the ball. Why is this? When a basketball hits the ground it actually transforms some of its energy to another form. If players do not put enough energy back into the ball, they will not be able to dribble it effectively.

Bay Area Spare The Air Day Pollution(world history): https://docs.google.com/a/alamedaclc.org/document/d/1cHFbRAzbi95-fXHfmwv6PNPmbJ54MJi3Ib_IW1nl0nk/edit?usp=sharing

Abstract

This essay is discussing the the causes of the growing pollution in the California Bay Area and the effect and impact that it is having on people’s health. It will try to answer the questions of why is air pollution increasing in the Bay Area? What effects does the air pollution have on the health of the people who live in the area? What is the long-term impact of this air pollution on people’s health?

Thesis: Air pollution in California is becoming an increasing threat to public health .

Cause: “Large amounts of air pollution are generated by the activities of 33 million people”(California Air Resources Board, 2017 ). Much of the pollution is caused by the gasoline and diesel-powered motor vehicles that people use in the big cities. “West Oakland and Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco are two hot spots that are more polluted because they’re near major sources of pollution like ports and freeways” (Beagle, 2017). The factories are another one of the major producers of pollution and health risks, because people who live close to the factories will be more likely to have a health problems caused by the polluted air. Also land between mountains have higher levels of pollution because the air is trapped. This can cause an increasing health problem for people that live there. The cause of the pollution stems from the population growth in the Bay Area .

The sources of pollution in Bay Area Pollution rates 2010 -2015 in Bay Area

Beagle, Matt. (January 26, 2017). Is the Air Quality in the Bay Area Getting Worse? Retrieved

from:https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/01/26/is-air-quality-in-the-bay-area-getting-worse/

Effect: “The American Lung Association’s 2016 State of the Air Report found the San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland metro area to be the sixth most polluted city in the U.S. by annual particulate matter, and the five cities that beat the region were all also in California.” (Watkins, 2016). People are breathing in this polluted air and getting illness including lung problems. The effect could be for the local neighborhood exposure to toxins and pollutants from factories in Oakland. The public health is affected by daily pollution and it is making them develop illness or sickness. “These effects have been found even in healthy people, but can be more serious in people with lung diseases such as asthma. They may lead to increased school absences, medication use, visits to doctors and emergency rooms, and hospital admissions”(USEPA, 2017).

Impact: “An estimated 7,000 early deaths per year related to dirty air in the state” (Watkins, 2016). People are not seeing that a lot of people’s health are affected by this pollution in the air. The thick fog in the air is often pollution. The immediate problem within 24 hours of exposure can cause people pain when they take a deep breath which is caused by the inflammation of the airways. Pollution causes a big health risk that will create long-term health problems like decreased lung function, diminished lung capacity and lung cancer. Also, exposure to pollution over time can affect other areas of the body like the heart, kidneys, and brain (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009).

Analysis

We have systems that tells us when the air quality is polluted. There are websites and apps that tell what the air quality is at any time and any place. This is how we know the Bay Area’s air pollution is increasing. Some solutions that were used to reduce air pollution was to carpool more. The East Bay has created a “Spare the Air Day” to help reduce the air pollution by naming specific ways that people can help. It also gives information on the pollution causes. They have made a law not turn on your fireplace on spare the air days when pollution is high. They also ask people to ride bikes on nice days so we can reduce the air pollution and make the air better than before.

GMO project (Biology)

History on GMO cow

“ Although banned in most other industrialized nations due to the health risks to humans and harm to the animals, Monsanto's genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST) is still injected into dairy cows in the US to increase milk-production”.

“2% to 3% of infants are allergic to cow milk have symptoms like rashes, hives and fever. Although most infants grow out of it, researchers have tested and found a way to create milk that the infants are take in. This is possible due to genetic mutation, genetic mutation is essentially splicing DNA. Or altering the body in ways that scientist can use to their own benefit.”

“ The genetic modification is tested on a tailless cow found in New Zealand. This special calf is created through genetic modification and cloning it produces milk that contains no detectable levels of beta lactoglobulin , which is the protein that is the cause of the milk allergies.”

What is a genetically modified organism?

A:The GMO is the result of a laboratory process where genes from a specific DNA of one species are taken out and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. The foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Basically it can come from anything.Cows genetically modified to produce healthier milk Scientists have created cows that have been genetically modified to produce milk which is healthier for humans.