Title: Observation #2 (Water Lab)
Date: Thursday, 23 Feb 2017
Time/Date start: 10 Feb 2017
Time/Date end: 17 Feb 2017
This is a water lab experiment to test the water quality and bacterial contamination. Water samples were collected from Harlem as lake samples and brought into the lab. We tested for total coliforms and fecal coliforms that are found in the guts of animals and humans respectively. When total coliforms are metabolized, they turn pink. When fecal coliforms are metabolized, they turn pink and blue, which makes purple.
The lake sample was filtered through a 0.45um filter, to collect the bacteria on the filter.
Below is a diagram of it:
We used 5 Petri dishes to test. 1 was for control, 2 were reference standards and 2 were experiments. More details, as well as our color prediction of the end results, can be found in the chart below.
Our hypothesis was that if the filter works, then there will be no colors visible in plate #5, because no bacteria will be able to pass through and therefore, no metabolism will occur.
Following is our visual results and they turn out to be exactly the way we had predicted.
Results on 17 Feb 2017
It was important to test for water contamination as these lakes are part of the systems of survival in which we rely on in both urban and suburban areas of New York. Contaminated sewage systems can dangerously affect the health of the population in the state.
