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)