Science report,Ding Mohan,Zi Qiu,Valencia,Wern Ying,Jun Rong

Title: The Absorbency of Different Type of Soil

Introduction and Aim of Project:

Introduction: We have to prevent the damaging effects of a flash flood in a limited amount of time. We are to build an artificial flood bank to control the flooding. But we only have enough time to build the levee for one section, either section A, B or C.

Aim of project:

•

The difference in the different type of soil is the amount of water the soil can absorb.

•

The aim of the project is to find out which type of soilcan absorb the most amount of water and which levee need to build on which section.

Experimental Design and Procedure:

Plan of Experimental Design

•

Factors: Type of soil and the amount of water

•

Hypothesis for Task 1: Sand can absorb more water than clay or top soil

•

Hypothesis for Task 2: The levee should be built in Section B

•

Question: Will a high tide impact the amount of water soil can absorb?

Procedures:

1.

Measure 200ml of water and pour it above the 3 different type of soil

2.

Time 1 minute

3.

Remove the beaker from below the bottle immediately after 1 minute

4.

Measure the amount of water in the beaker

5.

Repeat the procedures for the other soils for trial

6.

Do the procedures for the soil again

Results:

Task 1

Type of soil	Amount of water collected in the beaker
Sand	73
Top Soil	77
Clay	83

Task 2

Type of soil	Amount of water collected in the beaker
Sand	59
Top Soil	61
Clay	65

Analysis and Discussion of Results:

•

The results prove that our hypothesis is correct. Sand is the best absorbent material as compared to top soil and clay.

Conclusion:

•

Sand is the most absorbency material among the three materials.

Reason: Sand has the least amount of water collected in the beaker although the same amount of water has been poured in the 3 different beakers. This shows that sand absorbs more water than top soil or clay. Hence, sand is the most absorbency material among the three materials.

•

Section B needs the levee more than Section A or C.

Reason: In section B, there is only clay there to absorb the flood. Compared to top soil or sand, clay is the poorer absorbent material so Section B needs the levee more than Section A or C.

Areas for Further Research and Study:

•

We can do more trials to prevent human error

•

Instead of measuring the amount of water every 2 minutes, we can measure the time taken for the water to reach 100ml

•

We can also try to use garden soil

•

The less the amount of top soil in the beaker, the more the amount of water will pass through

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee

Duty List and Acknowledgement:

Group Members: Koh Wern Ying, Toh Jun Rong, Ding Mo Han, Valencia Wan and Wang Zi Qiu

Science report ( Susan, Shin Young, Ruo Xuan, Yi Ting )

                                    Science Report

Hypothesis:

Top soil can reduce the most amount of water found beyond the soil bed compared to sand and clay.


Variable:


Independent variable - type of soil bed                              

Dependent variable - amount of water found beyond the sand bag

Constant variable -

duration of experiment for each set- up,                                        size of bottle,                                                                          volume of water,                                                                          mass of soil


Data analysis:

Type of soil	Amount of soil in the beaker(ml)
Top soil	96.5
Sand	65.5
Clay soil	38

Apparatus list:


-3 (1.5L) plastic bottles


-400g of 3 different soil types (Top soil, Sand, Clay)

-1 piece of fine mesh


-250/500ml beaker


-100ml measuring cylinder


-Electronic balance


-Stopwatch


-Hand lens (magnifying glass)


-Gloves


-Plastic spoons


-Soil testing device                                            

-Scissors 

Sectional diagram:

Procedure

1) Put 200g of sand in the soil testing device.

2)  Pour 300ml of water into the 2L bottle containing the sand

3)  Measure the amount of water left in the beaker

4)  Record the reading into the table

5)  Repeat the step 2 to 4 one more times

6)  Find the average of the readings of the amount of water in the 
beaker

7)  Repeat steps 1 to 6 with top soil and clay soil

8)  Compare the results of the three set-ups

Conclusion:
Clay soil is the best type of soil to be used in the sand bags to b

Areas for further studies

Conclusion

Clay soil is the best type of soil to be used in the sand bags to build the leeve.

  

  

  

​

Register no.	Name	Duty list
15	Susan Liu Ziyu	Experiment, making of report, sectional diagram
14	Lin Ruo xuan	Experiment, editing
17	Park shin young	Experiment, making tables, taking pictures
10	Koh Yi ting	Experiment, making of report,

Science Report (Sheng Feng, Kieren, Shu Hong,Jiang Mohan and Pierre)

Title: How different types of soil affect the volume of water that pass through it
Introduction: Different types of soil have different size of soil particles
The Aim: To find out if the type of soil affects the amount of water collected in the beaker after 2 minutes
Experimental Design:

Apparatus:

1.400g of sand, topsoil and clay soil

2.piece of fine mesh

3.250ml beaker

4.100ml measuring cylinder

5.electronic balance

6.stopwatch

7.3 soil testing device (Like the above picture)

Procedures:
1. Set up the 3 experiment as the above design, 1 with top soil, 1 with clay and the other with sand
2. Collect 3 measuring cylinder and measure 150ml of water in each of them
3. Pour all 3 measuring cylinders of water into the 3 experiments at the same time. Start the stopwatch when you started pouring the water into the experiments
4.after 30 seconds , stop the stopwatch and take out the beaker from the experiment.
5, Measure and write down the amount of water collected in the beaker for the 3 experiments
6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 another time and find the average between the first and the second time to make sure the results are reliable

The results:

Analysis and Discussion of Results:
The sand allows the most amount of water to pass through. Why? There is the most air holes in the sand. What does this show you? The particles of sand is the largest, so when the particles are bigger, there is a larger empty space which is taken by air. When water is poured, the water pushes the air out and creates a way for the water to pass through

Conclusion
Task 1:Clay is the best soil to be used in sand bags to build the levee. As we want least water to pass through. From the experiment, clay allows the least amount of water to pass through that is why it is the best soil to be used in the sand bag to build a levee

Task 2: Section B should be the place to build the levee first. As the soil there is clay, it allows the least volume of water to sip into the ground to absorb water while the top soil and sand allows more water to sip into the ground. So when water comes in,more water can sip into the top soil and sand as there is more air holes to allow water to go into it, thus we need to build the levee at section B first

Area for Further Research and Study:
Which soil is used for which plants?
A cactus should be grown on the sand, as the soil should be porous and spread over a deep layer, showing that it need that soil which allows the most water to pass through

Credits to:
Jiang Mohan(1I)- Brought some materials and carried out the experiments
Shu Hong(1I)- Helped Carry out the experiments
Kieren(1I)- In charge of the time and helped cleaning
Pierre(1I)-Helped in planning out the experiments
Sheng Feng (1I)- Brought some materials and helped in planning the experiments

Science report ( Teck Weng, Gabriel, Jun Jie, Adon and Zhi Xin)

Science experiment on flooding(Teckweng,Junjie,Gabriel,Zhixin,Adon)

Introduction of experiment:

There has been a severe flood threat and there are three types of soil,top soil,clay and sand. We are in a race against time to control and prevent the damaging effects of a flash flood. Only one of the sections can be completed by the river engineers given the limited time.

Aim of project:

Find out which type of soil is best at preventing water from going through

Hypothesis and variables

Hypothesis: the best type of soil to be used in the sand bags to build the levee is clay.

Independent variable: type of soil

Dependent variable: 

Volume of water in the beaker at the end of the experiment.

Constant: 

Type of water

Volume of water poured in each set-up

The mass of soil for each set-up

Identical set-ups for the experiment except for the type of soil

Conclusion: the best type of soil used in sand bags to build the levee is clay.The set-up with clay has the least volume of water collected in the beaker at the end of the experiment.This proves that clay slower down the rate at which the water is passing through.

Question 2.

Hypothesis:We should build the levee for section B as the soil used to build he levee for section B is clay soil hence the levee will be able to prevent the most amount of water from going through.

Conclusion:As the best type of soil used to be build the levee is the clay soil, we will build section B first. As the soil used to build the levee for section B is the clay soil and the damage will not be as serious.

Carrying out experiment:

Materials needed

1.3 plastic bottles

2.400g of sand, topsoil and clay soil

3.piece of fine mesh

4.250ml beaker

5.100ml measuring cylinder

6.electronic balance

7.stopwatch

8.hand lens

9.gloves,plastic spoons and scissors

10.soil testing device

Steps for conducting the experiment

1)Pour 200 g of each type of soil into each of the 3 soil- testing device

2)Pour 200ml of water into each of the soil- testing device at the same time.

3)Measure the volume of water in each beaker after 2 minutes.

4)Record down the result

5)Clear the wet soil and water in the beaker and the soil- testing device

6)Repeat step 1 to step 5 for the second time.

7)Compare both results and get the average result

8)Compare the end result with the hypothesis

9)Make a conclusion

Experimental design

Pictures of us conducting the experiment

 Starting of the experiment

During the experiment 

Getting results

Results recorded

Analysis and discussion of results

The clay soil is the most compact and there will be least air holes in the soil. Therefore, the water will pass through the soil at a slower rate compared to the top soil which has the most number of airholes in the soil.

Further research and study

What should the sandbags be made of?

A sandbag (floodbag) is a sack made of hessian/burlap, polypropylene or other materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification, shielding glass windows in war zones and ballast.

Advantages are that burlap and sand are inexpensive, and that the bags can be brought in empty and filled with local sand or soil.

Reference

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbag

Duty list

-Loh TeckWeng (finished the report,helped with the science experiment)

-Gabriel Tan WeiYang( helped with the science experiment and collation of results and pictures)

-Cai JunJie(helped with the science experiment and science report)

-Adon Yap(helped with the science experiment)

-Liu Zhixin(helped with the science experiment)

Science report (Jing Han, XinTong, Sandra, Renne & Celest)

Reducing the volume of flooded water

 

Introduction of the project:

The different type of soil allows different volume of water to seep through them and thee different types of soil absorb different volume of water.

Aim of the project:

The aim of this experiment is to find out if topsoil, clay soil or sand can absorb the most water and prevent the strong currents of the water from destroying the houses on the banks of the river and find out which section along the river should be built first and there is a limitation of time.

TASK 1:

Experimental design:

 

 

 

Plan of experimental design:

Factors affecting the volume of water a soil can hold:

the air spaces in the soil and the volume of water that the soil can absorb, which causes a volume of water to seep through the soil.

Hypothesis:
Topsoil allows less water to seep through as compared to clay soil and sand.


Questions while investigating:
Is this a fair test? Are the results reliable?

Variables

- Independent: type of soil: topsoil, clay soil and sand

 -Dependent: the volume of water that seeps through the soil after 1 min

 -Constant:

1) mass of each type of soil in each bottle top (150g)

2) volume of water poured into each bottle top (150ml)                 

3) length of bottle top                                

4) the duration of the experiment for each soil (1min per trial)

Procedure:

1. Set up the soil-testing device on the table.
2. Measure the mass of the topsoil with the electronic balance given and sure that there is about 150g of topsoil.
3. Pour the top soil into bottle top, above the mesh.
4. Measure 150ml of water and pour it onto the topsoil.
5. Start the stop watch immediately after all the water has been poured and stop the stop watch after a minute.
6. Take the beaker (which has the bottle top resting on it) filled with water that seeped through the top soil and measure the volume of water in it, using a measuring cylinder.
7. Record the result and repeat the experiment again with the topsoil and find the average amount of water that seeped through the top soil
8. Repeat step 2-7 with clay soil and sand and come up with a table.

 

Measuring instruments used: 250ml beaker, 50/100ml cylinder, electronic balance and stopwatch

Clay soil

Sand

Top soil

 

Results:

Type of soil	1st trial/ml	2nd trial/ml	Average/ml
Topsoil	27	78	52.5
clay soil	5.5	6	5.75
Sand	14	17	15.5

 

 

Analysis and discussion of results:

The space in between the soil particles, called pores, helps retain the water and prevent it from seeping through the soil. Therefore, the soil’s ability to retain the water from seeping through the soil is related to the soil’s particle size. The smaller the soil particles are, less water is able to seep through it. We can conclude that clay soil has smaller soil particles as compared to top soil and sand.

Conclusion:

Clay soil is the best type of soil to be used in the sand bags to build the levee as compared to topsoil and sand as it allows less water to seep through it. If less water seeps through the levee, it will reduce the volume of water that will accumulate and thence, reduce the volume of flooded water. The levee at section B should be built first as clay soil seems to have more effect when it comes to reducing the volume of water that seeps through the levee and reducing the rate of flood.

Areas for further research or study:

Areas for improvement:

It was not a fair test at first so we had to redo the whole test again, I think we should be more careful handling the materials and make sure that we are conducting a fair test. We ended up without enough soil so we had to decrease the amount of soil used to 150g for each type of soil. Furthermore, we spilled some soil while conducting the experiment while pouring them into the bottle top due to carelessness.


Questions:
How does soil absorbs water? Why does different type of soil affect the volume of water absorbed and does it have to do with the particles inside the soil?

Reference:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/r4082e/r4082e03.htm#2.1 the soil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_water_(retention)

Duty list:

Report:

1)      Cheng Jing Han(2): set up the experiment

2)      Chian XinTong(4): carried out the experiment, recorded results and did the report

3)      Sandra Kho(8): set up the experiment

4)      Renee(18): set up the experiment

5)      Celest Seah(19): carried out the experiment

 

Everyone contributed by bringing the materials, and gave ideas for the report