Team Name: Aguacates

Students:
Silvia Rosado
Michelle Aguilar
Luis Alvarez
Truman Cerney

Topic Are: Water Bottle Contamination

Step 1: Identify and Research a Problem or Issue That Has Global Impact
Tap water is usually classified as impure or contaminated causing Americans to buy bottled
water even if it is at a higher cost because they are unaware of the fact that tap water may be
cleaner than bottled water. Bottled water is always Americans preferable choice when it comes
to drinking water but not only do they not realize that they are putting unknown chemicals into
their body but they are also harming the environment. Less than 13 percent of bottles are actually
recycled and the rest end up in landfills and oceans around the world.
5


Most water bottle companies are misleading displaying pictures of lakes, streams, springs, and
mountains when in reality about one fourth of it is bottled tap water. Sometimes the bottled tap
water goes through additional treatment but it does not always
10
. There are many regulations that
tap water has to go through in order to be delivered to homes that bottled water does not go
through. Bottled water only goes through the FDA standards while tap water has to go through
the EPA regulations
10
. For example water bottling plants only have to test for coliform once a
week while big-city tap water has to test about 100 or more times a month. City tap water has to
test for Cryptosporidium or Giardia (common water pathogens that can cause intestinal
problems) but bottled water companies are not required to.
10
When tap water violates the EPA
regulations they are enforced but when bottled water violates the standards, the water can still be
sold if labeled
10
. The list goes on and on of all the health requirements tap water has to meet that
bottled water does not. Not only can bottled water be less healthy, but it also harms the oceans
when not recycled which is 87% of all left over bottles that end up in landfills instead of
recycling bins
5
. Plastic bottles do not break down naturally and when they finally decompose
they release toxic chemicals
2
. When the bottles end up in the ocean, it breaks into smaller and
smaller pieces as the sun hits it
7
. It is later ingested by over 180 known marine animals because it
is mistaken for food
7
. The bits of plastic are slowly becoming our oceans and beaches, in fact
5000 bits of plastic have been found per meter cubed of sand on average
7
. As the amount of
plastic from bottles increases in the ocean, they will cover the surfaces of the ocean not allowing
the plankton to receive the sunlight they need to reproduce. Since plankton are at the bottom of
the marine food chain, their decrease will affect fish population in general and later affect
humans with the lack of marine food.

Bottled water companies do not care about the publics health but merely on making money and
if health rules are not enforced on them the bottled water will keep loosing its pureness. Without
awareness of bottled waters impurities the public will continue to purchase bottled water
causing their companies to grow and become more careless about inspecting their water. Not
only will the bottling companies lose interest in purifying water but the more water bottles
Americans buy the more bottles end up in landfills and oceans.

Testing tap water and bottled water to confirm their cleanliness will show students at High Tech
High Chula Vista that there is no need to pay 2,900 times the price of tap water just to get it in a
bottle. We will find out the pureness of our tap water versus bottled water by testing for Coliform
bacteria, nitrates, nitrites, total chlorine, total alkalinity, total hardness, iron, copper, and pH.
Most people continue buying bottled water because they are not aware of the fact that it may be
just as clean as tap water but once shown the research on our groups testing, they will drink
more tap water instead of bottled water.
Citations:

1) Rutledge, Kim, and Hilary Costa. "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." National Geographic
Education. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
2) Dell'Amore, Solvie Karlstrom and Christine. "Why Tap Water Is Better Than Bottled
Water." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 05 Feb.
2014.
3) "Bottled Water Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. Drop the Top, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 05 Feb.
2014.
4) Nall, Rachel. "Statistics on Pollution in the Pacific Ocean." Home Guides. Demand
Media, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
5) Didier, Suzanna. "Water Bottle Pollution Facts." Home Guides. Demand Media, n.d.
Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
6) Lerche, Jacqueline. "How Is Saving Plastic Bottles Helping the Earth?" Home Guides.
Demand Media, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
7) "Marine Litter." European Commission. European Commission, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 08
Feb. 2014.
8) "GMA: Water Taste Test." ABC News. ABC News Network, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
9) "Bottled Water vs. Tap Water: Can You Tell the Difference?" ABC News. ABC News
Network, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
10) Olson, Erik D. "Bottled Water." NRDC. Natural Resource Defense Council, 15 July
2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
11) "Food." FDA Regulates the Safety of Bottled Water Beverages Including Flavored Water
and Nutrient-Added Water Beverages. FDA, 10 July 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Step 2: State Your Hypothesis
What is your teams hypothesis?
If we can convince students that tap water has the same cleanliness and water quality as bottled
water, then plastic use and production of trash will decrease significantly.

Step 3: Plan and Design Your Project
Now that your team has identified the problem and formed a hypothesis, describe the plan and
design of your project:
What is your team's action plan? Your action plan should include processes and materials
that are eco-friendly or sustainable. Include experimental design, project steps (including
communication and tracking plans), timeline for completion, necessary resources, and
proposed method.
What variables did you select to measure the potential solution's impact on the issue or
problem?
Describe your team's data collection processes, including what data you plan to collect.
Specify how each member of the team will contribute to the project.
Define the role of your Team Advisor/Mentor in your project.
Identify any other individuals who will help with your project and define their roles (this
includes additional teachers, parents, classmates, and community, business and
organizational leaders).
If there were none, you must indicate the following in this section, "We confirm that no
one other than the team members and Team Advisor/Mentor helped or participated in this
project."

Experiments Overview
We plan on conducting tests to confirm the cleanliness of bottled and tap water using water test
kits including pH, total alkalinity, total chlorine, total hardness, iron, copper, nitrates, nitrites and
coliform bacteria. Our teams action plan is to test on both tap water and bottled water and test to
see which one is better. We are going to test to see whether bottled water or tap water is used
more and to see if HTHCV students notice the difference between bottled and tap water and why
a large portion of them prefer bottled water over tap water.
Group Dynamics
We interchanged the role of team leader as the stages progressed and each of us were in charge
of making sure that our stage was being carried out. Luis was team leader during our research
stage. Truman was in charge of the planning stage, Silvia was in charge of carrying out the
experiment, and Michelle was in charge of analyzing the data. We all worked very well together
distributing the workload and using each of our strengths where they were needed most. Luis
was the member of the team that reached out to different companies and teachers due to his
outgoingness and helped Silvia carry out most of the experiment. Michelle and Truman worked
mostly on analyzing the results of the experimenting.

Details/Variables/Data Collection Of Our Experiment
We will measure the Cleanliness of both bottled water and tap water by testing the PH, Total
Alkalinity, Total Chlorine, Total Hardness, Iron, Copper, Nitrates, Nitrites, Iron, and Coliform
Bacteria. Our data collection will be based on the charts that come along with the water testing
kits we purchased. The test comes with strips that identify the levels PH, Total Alkalinity, Total
Chlorine, etc. Our group will test the water for how safe and clean it is. After testing the water
we will make a video including all the information we have collected. We will survey a class of
around 29 students, on their consumption of water, which water they prefer to drink and their
thought on tap water. After surveying them on those topics, we will show them our video
informing them on the cleanliness of tap water, the real difference between tap water and bottled
water and how bottled water contaminates the environment. Next we will survey them again on
the same topics to see if their opinions have changed after watching the video.

Citations:
N/A

Step 4: State Your Conclusion
Describe all qualitative and quantitative data collected by your team, including charts,
tables, graphs, written notes, sketches, photographs, or video.
Describe the effectiveness of the solution based on the qualitative and quantitative data
collected.
Explain any key findings derived from the data collected.
Did your hypothesis impact the problem it identified? Explain how the hypothesis helped
to solve the problem by changing the physical attributes of a locality, social behaviors of
the people in the community, local/global government policies, or any combination of the
above. Did you modify the plan over time as the project evolved?
First we tested bottled water and tap water to see if there was any difference or danger in our
school tap water and found that the tap water at High Tech High Chula Vista was just as clean as
the bottled water. Our group tested for pH, Total Alkalinity, Total Chlorine, Total Hardness,
Iron, Copper, Nitrates, Nitrites and Coliform Bacteria. Most results were the same and the few
that were different were within the safe range as shown in table 1. We started counting the water
bottles in the trash cans of each classroom that had a sink in it at High Tech High Chula Vista
and we planned to show our video to each of those classes and recount the water bottles in the
days following to see how much the video impacted the students. We had to change our plans
because after going through the trash cans for water bottles we found less that 2 water bottles per
room and felt that we wouldnt get very good results. We looked for other options and decided
on surveying the students in rooms with accessible tap water. We asked them the questions
showed in the survey in step 8 and then showed them the video made by our group also shown in
step 8. Afterwards we surveyed them again. Our results from the first survey showed that most
students thought that tap water was contaminated and less cleaner than bottled water as shown in
graph number 3. Also most students prefered to drink bottled water as shown in table number 2
and graph number 1. Although most student were willing to drink the tap water at school the
number of students increased after showing them the video. Along with the number of students
that would rather drink tap and filtered water instead of bottled water and those who thought tap
water was just as clean as bottled and filtered water. Something that was mentioned frequently
throughout the surveys, was that they prefered to drink bottled water because it was more
convenient and easy to carry around, but if students were to buy or receive reusable bottles from
the school they would be able to carry the water around with them with the same facility as with
a plastic water bottle. Our hypothesis stated that if students were informed, plastic use and
production of trash would reduce. This helped solve our problem because very few students
prefered to drink tap water and most prefered to drink bottled water but after watching the video
the number of people that prefered water bottles was the lowest number and drinking filtered
water was the most prefered. Although our goal was to get students to drink tap water, our goal
was partially accomplished by this because at least the students will stop consuming so many
water bottles and drink filtered water.

Step 5: State Your Solution
State your solution and what was learned.
State your solution and what was learned.
Describe how your solution is innovative.
Explain your conclusion based on your data.
Is your solution effective?
What made the plan work?
What challenges occurred along the way?
How did your team overcome those challenges?
What would you do differently if given the opportunity?
Our solution to show students an informative video on the cons of bottled water in order to stop
water bottle use proved successful with the class of students. It didnt end water bottle use
completely but many students showed persuasion and were easily convinced by the video. A lot
of students changed their opinions after watching the video because they have grown up thinking
that water bottles are the most pure water around and that they come straight from fresh rivers,
springs and other natural resources. Most were shocked to see that the water bottles were
advertised falsely and that water most of the water in the bottles is actually tap water. What we
felt convinced them the most was that we had tested our school water ourselves. That gave them
more confidence in believing that our school tap water is potable. The largest challenge we
encountered was having to change direction in our experimentation process. Our original plan
was to count the water bottles in the trash cans of classrooms with access to a sink and track the
difference after showing them our video but since we barely found any water bottles in the trash
cans, we had to find another a way to calculate the impact. This slowed us down and left us with
less time to carry out our new and improved plan but we adapted to the time we had and carried
it out. Another smaller challenge that we encountered earlier on was finding a way to test the
water and how to obtain water testing equipment. We reached out to local companies to ask for
donations but none of them had the testing equipment that we needed available. In the end we
bought water testing kits and were able to move on to the next phase of our project. If given the
opportunity, we would like to have started earlier with the project giving us more time to show
our video and survey more classes in our school. Also we wouldve liked to make our survey
multiple choice to get more accurate answers.
Step 6: Share It!
How did your team inform others about your project and get them involved? Be sure to
include quantitative information on the number of people that got involved.
What resources did your team use to extend your project's impact? (e.g. creating a
website and/or a marketing tool that includes a description of the project.) Include
documentation of a communication strategy, and provide specific detail on who and how
many people you reached.
Explain in detail how you could replicate the project in other communities. How might
they benefit? What unique challenges does someone replicating your project have to keep
in mind?
My team and I helped inform others of our project by going into a classroom of 9th graders to do
a part of our experimenting. After that step we went into the same classroom and showed a
video of what the problem is and how they could help be a part of the solution. Some resources
that we used to expand our projects impact is our school. We know how flexible the teachers are
and we used that to our advantage. Overall we reached a class with a total of about 29 students.
We would like to expand our project even more by showing our presentations to different
schools and showing the littlest but most effective things they could do.When replicating our
project people need to take in part the experimentation part and making sure that the testing
theyre doing is reliable. This could benefit them in a way that saves them money that will be
long term if sticking to it. They have to know what theyre testing for and why.
Step 7: Global Impact
Describe how your solution could have global implications.
How would you implement your solution on a global scale?
Provide examples you have undertaken, if available.
While the purpose of this project was to convince students at High Tech High Chula Vista to
drink more out of the tap water instead of drinking bottled water, this would have even greater
effects if it was conducted throughout the United States. Although if this project was to be
carried out globally, the tap water would have to be clean and regulated as much as it is in the
United States because unfortunately not all tap water is just as clean. Not to mention the effect
this project would have if bottled water was cut completely from the world. It would reduce
landfills and ocean debris allowing natural organisms to sprout naturally on their own. If we had
the chance to implement our project worldwide we would make an advertising campaign
involving posters, billboards and online ads. We would inform the public of how clean their tap
water is versus their bottled water. Also how much money they would save by using tap water
instead of overly paying for bottled water that just contaminates the environment. By appealing
to the publics health, and emotional side, we could convince them to stop bottled water use and
start to drink water from their tap water source. Showing a few students a short video made a
small change, imagine the change it would make to show the United States a similar video and
constantly remind of the large change they could make with something so simple.
STEP 8: Attachments (Optional, but strongly encouraged)
You may include attachments to provide more information. You may choose to upload
one PDF containing materials to support your application.
Please briefly describe the information in your attachments. For example: "Our PDF
includes
data tables showing our research and photos of posters we created to hang in our school.
The url link is for a commercial we created for our school about the effects of idling
cars."
https://docs.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/file/d/0B71QGDN61G7WMkh1VDZnTjU4cWM/ed
it
Our PDF includes tables and graphs of the data we collected testing the water and surveying the
students. The url is to the video we showed the students we surveyed to change their minds.