Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report

Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report
Carefully review the Grading Rubric that will be used to evaluate your assignment before you begin.

You are required to develop a rough draft for your Final Lab Report, which covers all three experiments from the Week Two Lab assignment “Lab 2: Water Quality and Contamination.” This rough draft must also be reviewed using the Grammarly tool from the Writing Center to help you identify and correct any mistakes to your rough draft. Be sure to submit the Grammarly report and the corrected rough draft to the Week Three Assignment box.

Complete the following steps to submit both reports:
1. Carefully read the instructions for your Final Lab Report assignment located within Week Five.
2. Download the Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report Template and utilize this form to ensure correct formatting and inclusion of all required material.
3. Use at least four scholarly sources and your lab manual to support your points.
4. The rough draft must be three to five pages in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center.
5. Use the Grammarly tool to review your paper before submitting it for grading. Grammarly is an online tool offered by Ashford University to help you quickly identify errors and learn from your mistakes in order to create professionally written work.
o Review the Grammarly tutorial to learn how to set up and use Grammarly.
o Review the issues identified by Grammarly and make corrections to your work before submitting it to Waypoint for grading on Day 7.
o Save the Grammarly report as a PDF file and submit it along with your assignment. This means that you will submit two documents to Waypoint: theGrammarly report and your corrected rough draft.
Note: Please do not use www.grammarly.com to sign up as you will get limited feedback. Ashford University pays for additional fabulous Grammarly services so you don’t have to. If you encounter any problems or technical issues, please contact support@grammarly.com.

The Rough Draft of the Final Lab Report must contain the following seven sections in this order:

1. Title Page – This page must include the title of your report, your name, course name, instructor, and date submitted.
2. Introduction – This section should discuss why the experiment was conducted. At a minimum, it should contain three paragraphs. One paragraph must cover background information of similar studies that have already been done in the area. This is accomplished by citing existing literature from similar experiments and explaining their results. A second paragraph should provide an objective or a reason why the experiment is being done. Why do we want to know the answer to the question we are asking? A third paragraph should provide a hypothesis for each of the three experiments conducted.
3. Materials and Methods – This section should provide a detailed description of the materials used in your experiment and how they were used. A step-by-step rundown of your experiment is necessary; however, it should be done in paragraph form, not in a list format. The description should be exact enough to allow for someone reading the report to replicate the experiment, but it should be in your own words and not simply copied and pasted from the lab manual.
4. Results – This section should include the data and observations from the experiment. All tables and graphs should be present in this section. Additionally, there should be at least one paragraph explaining the data in paragraph form. There should be no personal opinions or discussion beyond the results of your experiments located within this section.
5. Discussion – This section should interpret or explain the meaning of your data and provide conclusions. At least three paragraphs should be outlined here. First, a paragraph should be present that addresses whether the hypotheses were confirmed or denied and how you know this. Second, you are to discuss the meaning of your findings in this area utilizing scholarly sources to put the paper into context. For example, how do your results compare with the findings of similar studies? Also, you should discuss any future questions arising from your results and how you might test them. Finally, you should discuss if there are any outside factors (i.e., temperature, contaminants, time of day) that affected your results. If so, how could you control for these in the future?
6. Conclusions – This section should provide a brief summary of your work.
7. References – Provide a list of at least four scholarly sources and your lab manual that will be used in the Final Lab Report. Format your references according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Note: An abstract must be included in the Final Lab Report. However, the abstract should not be included in the rough draft as it is to be written last after the entire paper is fully written. Do not forget this in your Final Lab Report.

Lab 2 – Water Quality and Contamination
Experiment 1: Effects of Groundwater Contamination
Table 1: Water Observations (Smell, Color, Etc.)
Beaker Observations
1 The oil is sitting on top of the water. Looks cloudy. There is no aroma produced.
2 You can now smell odor but cannot tell what the odor is.
3 It is a little cloudy. I can see that bubbles have started to surface. There is no odor.
4 The water has turned to a blue/green color. Many bubbles are in the solution. Smell is strong has a soap smell.
5 The Water has slight color of brown. Looks very cloudy. No odor. Oil is visually present soil is collecting it.
6 There is some sediment present. Water is brown. Odor is strong. The soil within the cheesecloth is completely wet. No residue.
7 The water has turned to a darker brown. There are bubbles in the soil. There is a slight odor in the vinegar in the water. With less smell of the odor appears that the soil is diluting the substance.
8 The oil is at the top of the water. No odor. Water is visually cloudy
POST LAB QUESTIONS
1. Develop hypotheses on the ability of oil, vinegar, and laundry detergent to contaminate groundwater.

a. Oil hypothesis = I think that the oil will remain in the water and it will separate.
b. Vinegar hypothesis = I think that the vinegar will remain the same inside the water and not separate.
c. Laundry detergent hypothesis = I believe that the water will become cloudy from laundry detergent and bubbles will form from detergent.
2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept each hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this.

The water did not do anything to the soil unlike the vinegar which gave the soil a smell that is how I could tell what was used. The only thing that the oil did was sit right on top of the water, nothing else. The laundry detergent had the most sediment because it made things not as clear.

3. What effect did each of the contaminants have on the water in the experiment? Which contaminant seemed to have the most potent effect on the water?

Answer = The oil had made the water slimy and caused the water to look a little cloudy. Using the vinegar didn’t change the way the water appeared. The oil did sit right on the top of the water no matter what you did to it. The laundry detergent made things cloudy.
4. Using at least one scholarly source; discuss the potential effect of each contaminant (oil, vinegar, and detergent) on the town’s water source and the people who drank the water.

Answer = If contaminants were released into public water supply system. People would probably be able to smell and taste. I believe that the detergent could harm and be toxic. According to Dr. Mercola” The typical American home contains 3-10 gallons of toxic materials everything from glass, bathroom cleaners to garden pesticides. Health effects of ingredients in common household products include: respiratory problems, eye irritation, cancer and disruption of the endocrine system” (Dr. Merola 2012). One to be the most toxic is the laundry detergents. People could get sick if released into the water supply to the public.
5. Describe what type of human activity would cause contaminants like oil, acid, and detergents to flow into the water supply. Additionally, what other items within your house do you believe could contaminate the water supply if you were to dump them onto the ground?

Answer = One main reason the contaminants end up in the water supply is due to spillage. There has been an ongoing amount of oil in the ocean. Others are contamination, type of cleaning material such as bleach, pesticides, bathroom cleaners, insect repellents.
Experiment 2: Water Treatment

POST LAB QUESTIONS
1. Develop a hypothesis on the ability of your filtration technique to remove contaminants.

Hypothesis = I think that the main idea is to keep in mind that when dealing with separating contaminated items to remember to keep them far apart. There has to be an idea to keep the two free apart from each other. Once water is treated all contamination is out then water can flow freely and be ok.
2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept the hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this.

Accept/Reject = Yes, I accept what my hypothesis result came out to. The water came out clearer as I thought once it was treated. Treatment only made it better.
3. What are the differences in color, smell, visibility, and so forth between the “contaminated” water and the “treated” water?

The water had a slight color of brown when using the oil. When I used the filtered water the oil seemed to no longer be a problem. There was no odor at all.

Once I started the filtration the odor was not as strong. There was a slight odor only because of the vinegar.

The water was soapy and slight brown. After filtration was completed you could see the water remained soapy but was noticeable as much.
4. From the introduction to this lab, you know that there are typically five steps involved in the water treatment process. Identify the processes (e.g., coagulation) that were used in this lab. Additionally describe how each of the processes were performed in this lab.

Answer =

Aeration: I used a stirring stick made of wood.

Coagulation or Flocculation: When I added the Alum it added dirt particles and clumps to water.

Sedimentation: When using the heavy objects they floated straight to the bottom of the mix.

Filtration: The gravel, sand and charcoal went right in the filtered water.

Disinfection: When it comes down to using bleach you must use certain amounts to help kill bacteria and germs inside the filtered water.
Experiment 3: Drinking Water Quality
Table 2: Ammonia Test Results
Water Sample Test Results
Tap Water 0
Dasani® Bottled Water 0
Fiji® Bottled Water 0

Table 3: Chloride Test Results
Water Sample Test Results
Tap Water 0
Dasani® Bottled Water 500
Fiji® Bottled Water 500

Table 4: 4 in 1 Test Results
Water Sample pH Total Alkalinity Total Chlorine Total Hardness
Tap Water 4 8 0.2 0-soft
Dasani® Bottled Water 3 120 0 50
Fiji® Bottled Water 7 80 .02 50

Table 5: Phosphate Test Results
Water Sample Test Results
Tap Water 25
Dasani® Bottled Water 10
Fiji® Bottled Water 100

Table 6: Iron Test Results
Water Sample Test Results
Tap Water 0.3
Dasani® Bottled Water 0
Fiji® Bottled Water .15

POST LAB QUESTIONS

1. Develop a hypothesis on which water source you believe will contain the most and least chemical components.

Hypothesis = Dasani water doesn’t have chloride, iron or phosphate inside of it. Tab water would be second it does not have contamination like bottle water may have.
2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept the hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this.

Accept/reject = The Dasani water was the best selection. It did not have a bad taste, also does not contain high levels of iron.
3. Based on the results of your experiment, what major differences, if any, do you notice between the Dasani, Fiji, and tap water?

Answer = The Dasani water is better choice than the other two. Tap water I believe overall is not that bad. I would drink tap water if there wasn’t Dasani as a choice.
4. Based on your results, do you believe that bottled water is worth the price? Why or why not?

Answer = Bottle water is getting quite expensive and is not worth the price. The more people drink the higher the prices we face that keep rising. Overall, as long as we can consume the right amount of water daily this is the main factor.
*NOTE – Do not forget to go to Lab 3: Biodiversity, and complete “Experiment 1: Diversity of Plants” steps 1 through 6. Steps 1 through 6 need to be completed in order to be prepared for Week Three, however, results for this experiment will not be calculated until next week. Thus, while nothing is to be handed in for this experiment until the end of Week Three you must plant the seeds this week to ensure that you can complete week 3 on time.
References
Dr. Mercola (2012). The Worst Ingredients in Laundry Detergent.
Http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-worst-ingredients-in-laundry-detergent.html/2