PROJECTS
Project | 01
Project | 01 Bridging the Gap
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This article, titled, "Bridging the Gap: Bringing Professionals into the Classroom to Effectively Teach Environmental Science Concepts," is about implementing a program that incorporates hands-on learning techniques, as well as citizen science methods, to effectively educate high school students on the importance of water quality. The goal of this article is to determine the effectiveness of the implemented program, what information was retained by the students, and the overall interactions between mentors and students.
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This program was created to help implement new teaching methods that provide more resources for the teacher, and is a great way to make scientific concepts really "stick." One of the hands-on activities consisted of a board game of sorts where each team had to make decisions based on scientific data. This allowed them to take the information that was given and interpret that data to make educated decisions. In order to know whether or not the program is actually impactful, every student filled out a survey before and after attending the program. This way, data could be analyzed and we could then see how well the program helps students interact with and critically think about the information, rather that simply regurgitating what they read.
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Helping to create and analyze the surveys each student completed allowed me to understand how hands-on activities encourage critical thinking. This concept was further validated by watching the students reason through the aforementioned game where they used raw data to make educated decisions. From working on this article, I realized that if you want to effectively learn something, some strategies that help are hands-on activities where you can experience the information yourself, as well as doing these types of activities in groups. This is why many STEM based university classes have required labs that accompany them.
This is a downloadable version of the article. Feel free to give it a read!
Project | 02
Project | 02 Site and Operations Redesign of Composting Facility for City of Columbia
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My Senior Design group has proposed a well-articulated site and operations design to allow the incorporation of municipal food waste into the City of Columbia’s current composting facility influent waste stream. The City of Columbia realized that converting the current Type I compost facility to a Type II compost facility to include food waste, would decrease their carbon footprint, reduce food waste in the municipal waste stream, create profitable organic soil additives, and ultimately increase sale prices for profit. Marketing and selling to local companies to enable constant income and partnering with local entities to secure a reliable influent food waste stream would help the facility sustainably run and allow it to make a fiscal impact. Using successful composting facilities from the City of Greenville, SC and the City of Charleston, SC as a template, the City of Columbia would like to present a well-articulated site and operations plan for its compost facility, enabling the possibility of receiving grant funding. This project has been presented before without a developed plan and funding fell through. A well-articulated plan could convince funding bodies of their investment and push this project forward.
In the United States during 2015, approximately 40 million tons of food was sent to landfills as waste (EPA, 2019). This makes up 30% of all food produced in the United States (Sahoo, D. & Johns, J.P., 2019). As the population size continues to increase, food demand is constantly growing. One method to divert food waste from landfills is to compost the organic food matter. According to the SC Solid Waste Management Annual 2018 Report, South Carolina as a whole generated 4,289,591 tons of waste and recycled 28.5% of it in 2018. The State’s goal is to recycle at least 40% of its municipal solid waste by 2020, which would require an 11.5% increase in recycled waste. The City of Columbia, with a population of 411,592 people in 2018, generated 331,803 tons of waste and recycled 15.5% of it. Only about 2% of the recycled waste was food waste. By increasing the percentage of recycled food waste, the City of Columbia could reach its goal of 40% goal by 2020. One method to divert food waste from landfills and recycle it is to compost the organic food matter. However, the City of Columbia’s current composting facility is a Type I facility, which is not permitted to accept food waste. By converting the current operations to a Type II composting facility, the City of Columbia could reroute food waste from the municipal waste stream to the organic composting facility, lowering the City’s carbon footprint, reducing its impact on the environment, and hopefully reaching its goal of 40% recycled waste by 2020 (Sahoo, D. & Johns, J.P., 2019).
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My experience with this redesign project helped me to grasp how many different aspects are involved in engineering design as well as how to perform extensive research in order to solve many different problems. By being part of this assignment, I am now prepared to learn new software, collaborate with other engineers on projects, and effectively and confidently present my findings in front of professionals. These newfound skills will allow me to excel in an industry position.
An AutoCAD drawing of the finished site redesign.
Here is a block diagram of the steps the automatic watering system goes through when detecting soil moisture content.
Project | 03
Project | 03 Design of an Automatic Watering System for a Potted Plant
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The goal of this project is to prevent under-watering or over-watering of an indoor plant by creating a soil moisture sensor that connects to a compact, automatic watering system for houseplants. This system would enable plants to receive an appropriate amount of water anytime the soil's moisture content is too low. The moisture readings would be analyzed by an Arduino, which would then signal the watering system when necessary.
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When tending to potted houseplants, traveling or being away for days at a time equates to very dry and unhealthy plants in return. On the contrary, consistently over-watering a houseplant can be more detrimental than under-watering. When the soil becomes flooded, an oxidation-reduction process occurs where the excess water excludes any oxygen in the soil. This then changes the microflora in the soil, and can often lead to root rot, which is difficult to treat unless acted upon quickly6. Determining how often to water a plant is often a guessing game, as many times soil moisture content is determined by physically touching the soil.
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This project exposed me to Arduino and helped me improve my coding skills. This project also prepared me for learning new programs/ software when presented the opportunity in an industry position.
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