Project Description:
For our final project we took everything we learned over the year and applied it to a real world problem. Our problem was to fix climate change but we were not going to propose some solution to stop using cars and use cars that run off of plants our solution was to plant trees. We choose trees to fix one of the most heated issues on the planted right now because trees are cool and they absorb tons of carbon. To make our solution of trees to fix climate change we needed the trees to absorb more carbon. So our final solution was to genetically modify a redwood tree to grow 10x faster and 10x bigger. This means the tree absorbs up 20 times more carbon than a standard redwood and matures in 6 years opposed to 60 years. Our solution turns carbon from the air into a solid form that is non harmful to the atmosphere and can be used frequently in our daily lives.
Slideshow plus Script
Content
- GMO- A species that has had its DNA modified to provide the species with an advantage that benefits humans or the species. (ex. Modified soybeans to resist pesticides)
- Gibberlinn- A hormone that causes the plant to start growing, make fruit and flowers, and causes all of these parts to grow bigger if given more.
- Auxin- A hormone that makes a plant grow towards the light, grow long roots and stimulate elongation so the plants will grow very tall
- Cytokinn- A hormone that causes the plant to become bushier and wider with Longer branches and more leaves
- Abscisec Acid- A hormone that causes the tree to stay dormant and to not grow. During drought this hormone causes the plant to close the stromas of the leaves to save water.
- Coastal Redwood- One of the three types of redwood that is known for living on the Northern California coast in the fog belt and it long age.
- Carbon Farming- A technique where plants mostly trees are grown and then harvested and preserved to store the carbon. Also decomposing dead plant tissues to form a dirt rich in carbon, minerals, and nitrogen.
- Clear Cutting- A technique to harvest trees by cutting down large "lots" of trees that were all planted at the same time. Clearcutting is the most efficient and least impactful way to harvest trees.
- DNA insertion- A technique to insert Modified DNA into a species existing DNA. The two main techniques is with a heat gun with bacteria that causes the old DNA to multiple in the bacteria with the new DNA or by shooting the DNA with 1 .22 caliber and hoping the DNA insert was successful. Both techniques have moderate chances of success per seed.
- Carbon-An element that is one of the most abudnent element. Carbon is known as co2 in this project because the carbon molecule is attached to an oxygen molecule.
- Fossil Fuels-A form of energy that's byproducts are carbon dioxide and energy. Known for causing global warming.
Reflection:
This was the best project of the year for myself. I felt that my partner and I were very happy with the products we put out. All of our products were of the best quality high school students could put out and our grades have reflected that. My peaks of the project was the good work we put out and the collaboration we took to get there. First off this project I felt the most at home at because we had free range of what we wanted to do. Since we had this mobility I was highly invested in the project doing some of it at home and rehearsing the script for our presentation. This meant that the quality of work was better than past projects. Another great thing about this project was the collaboration with group mates. I was able to pick a group mate that didn't burden me but also made the project fun. Even when my group mate was off visiting family I didn't feel that there was double the work to make up. With this the collaboration of the group was very cohesive and allowed the success of this project.
While I feel there was no pits in this project but rather dimples there were a couple of things that could of been improved. The first thing that could of been improved was to complete the 5 stages rather quickly and front load the project because the presentation and script was the most important part of the project so an extra day would have been better. Another improvement we could have done was put more research in the genetics of the trees because we would have liked to been able to show in our blueprints the exact genes we would be modifying but instead we just showed what hormones we want released more. Overall though this was the best project we have completed and the most fun project we have done.
While I feel there was no pits in this project but rather dimples there were a couple of things that could of been improved. The first thing that could of been improved was to complete the 5 stages rather quickly and front load the project because the presentation and script was the most important part of the project so an extra day would have been better. Another improvement we could have done was put more research in the genetics of the trees because we would have liked to been able to show in our blueprints the exact genes we would be modifying but instead we just showed what hormones we want released more. Overall though this was the best project we have completed and the most fun project we have done.