Waste Water Treatment

Two things I learned from the from the trip to the water treatment plant was that it was designed to treat a daily flow of 1.1 million gallons of waste water and it was constructed in 1954. Before we went to the wastewater treatment plant I thought it would be boring and would smell really bad. I learned that it didn't smell as bad as I thought it would be, gravity is used to help them flow the water throughout the plant, and they use microorganisms to help clean the water of bacteria and wastes. My overall reaction on going to the wastewater treatment plant was that it was pretty interesting and it put it into perspective of how much water a day comes through the plant since no one really realizes where the water goes down the sink or toilet.

The Grand River

Two things I learned while reading the links were that the Grand River is about 5,660 square miles and it is significantly cleaner today than it was 30 years ago. Before we went to the Grand River to run our water test I thought it would be simple and fun. While at the river I learned some new animals that lived in the river, the river isn't very clean compared to the fecal coliform count, and the river isn't as deep as I thought it'd be. Working with the kids was definitely a good thing because it was fun teaching them how to do the tests and show them the animals. My overall reaction the field trip was a positive one because we got to help kids learn and get some fresh air.

Red Planet

The five things that I saw in the movie and that he talked about were the probes sent to Mars with algae, nuclear weapons were detonated on the north pole, the astronauts don't need their suits, artificial gravity, and the HAB module.

Algae probes: In the movie we never saw it but we were told that it had already been done. I thought it was an interesting way to produce an atmosphere. Dr. Plait believes that this idea could be realistic.
Nuclear weapons: Like the algae we never got to see this happen in the movie. I thought it is completely realistic since we have nuclear weapons today. He thought the idea was completely plausible.
Astronauts suits: The astronauts were about to die of no oxygen until Gallagher takes his helmet off and can breathe. I thought that it was sort of fake because it was a big coincidence. Dr. Plait thought the same as I did.
Artificial gravity: In the movie the astronauts can walk around on the ship instead of floating. I thought it was cool but I don't think it's really possible. However, Dr. Plait thought it was cool and how it turned on and off on them.
HAB module: This is the structure that is on Mars and where the astronauts will be staying. I thought the module being destroyed randomly didn't make any sense and was a turning point in the plot. Dr. Plait said that it was destroyed somehow and I think it was the bugs that ate the module.

Watching this movie relates to what we are doing in our bio-bottles because we're trying to grow plants in them. In the movie they are trying to produce oxygen by using algae and create an atmosphere to live in. On Mars the astronauts come in to contact with a blizzard that is 50 degrees below 0. I believe this is because that Mars is colder since it is farther away from the Sun than Earth is. There were also many similarities in that Mars has about the same number of hours of daylight as Earth.