BioAusable Mentioned in Valley News

Local 4-H youth compete in national STEM program event

Westport — On June 14, three 4-H youth and their coaches of the Essex-Clinton County 4-H Bio-Au Sable STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) team competed with some of the most brilliant young minds in the country.

The competition took place in Portland, Ore. for the coveted Stockholm Junior Water Prize. Matt Caito (Jay), Alexandra Rock (Keeseville) and Harrison Kyle (Hemingford, Que.) represented their team. They were accompanied by their coach, Matt Cauthorn (Keeseville) and chaperone Greg Caito (Jay) against competitors from 48 states and U.S. territories. Their goal was to capture the $10,000 monetary award as well as the opportunity to present their water quality project findings to an acclaimed international panel of scientific judges in Stockholm, Sweden.

Although they did not win the competition, they were honored to present their finding against such high caliber teams from across the U.S.

This 4-H club is no stranger to fierce competition. In order to earn the honor to represent New York State, the team competed in and won the Ying Tri Regional Science Fair in Syracuse. The Ying Tri Regional Science Fair was designed specifically for those New York students whose own regions did not host a regionally sanctioned science competition. Without this opportunity, many rural New York students would be locked out of higher level science competitions that require a win at a Regional Science Fair to qualify for other academic fairs such as the prestigious Intel Science Fair that is held in Maryland.

Last year, the team was invited to compete as part of the InVenTeam at M.I.T. The 4-H STEM Club was awarded the prestigious Lemelson award, a $10,000 prize to continue their work on bio filters to clean and purify water. This was the first time a 4-H club was invited to compete at the InVenTeam. In the past it has been magnet and charter schools whose academic focus was math, science, technology, and engineering. The club continues to expand their previous experiment on refinements on their original project.

Read full article: http://www.valleynewsadk.com/news/2013/aug/01/local-4-h-youth-compete-national-stem-program-even/

Ok i am uploading the 42 minuet long video now... It will take: 502 minuets to upload! I will post the link for it now but it won't work until tomorrow
Night Everyone!

-Vienna

Uploaded 6 videos tonight still have one saving on my computer I will upload that one at home tonight because it is 42 minuets long ! (Imagine how long that will take to upload!) Good Luck and good Night to everyone spending the night at the fire house!  

-Vienna

3 new videos

Today (Tuesday May 15th) Bradley and myself edited 3 videos posted them to YouTube (will post links as soon as the uploading is done) and crushed rocks with the rock crusher. Now I have to say: crushing rocks is A LOT of fun! So overall today was a very productive meeting.

-Vienna

Science fair 4/28/12

The BioAusable team went to the Regional Champlain Valley Scinece Fair at Plattsburgh State University. At the science fair, the BioAusable teams were split into two groups. Michael, Josh and Harrison were on the team that presented the sand filters. Michaela, Caleb and Tianza were on the team that presented the pre-filters. The teams were interviewed by the judges for 10-15 minutes. They asked questions about BioAusable and the filters. We took first place in the Engineering-Technology division as a tie between the two teams.
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our project video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Or8X01wLib4

link to the project video

New video

Added a new video to the YouTube account titled Feb 18.

- Dosti

google map

make'd a map of our houses

jesse

3 Videos posted

uploaded 3 new videos last night! (under media tab)

-Vienna

Saturday, 3 March 2012

The team met to work on the pre-filters. The first thing we did was to work with the Tantalus, which we are using to attempt to allow the water to flow in interrupted cycles. We have created a test model to determine whether or not the Tantalus (or another object of similar function) can fulfill this goal. If we can find a way to work the Tantalus, it would create a sustainable biofilter that would be more easy to run.

To build this device, a bulkhead fitting was placed at the base of a 5 gallon bucket, then clear PVC tubing was inserted in the bulkhead and coiled twice around the frame. The coils trap air and water. As the bucket is filled, the height of the water of the bucket finally gets strong enough to blow the air bubbles and water out of the way. It then drains until there is not enough water in the bucket to displace the air. We are using a pump to recycle the water through a garden hose back to the first bucket for testing purposes. 

Rather than moving the unwieldy pre-filters, which would be difficult considering the amount of sand and water contained, we are attempting to allow our device to move water through the tubes on its own, without requiring human intervention. However, we have yet to find a device which can fulfill all of our goals, and are currently experimenting with the tantalus. These experiments, coupled with other ideas, are proving successful as the flow of water is increased.

Carrying in Water

As a result to this change of plans, we are revising our mission statement to be more in accord with these new developments. 

Team Members

Liam, Grace, Matthew C., Harrison, Tianze, Sullivan, Michael, Josh, and the two leaders were in attendance. (mc).

Example of how a Tantalus works.
Gif taken from http://physics.uoregon.edu/~demo/Demo/Fluid_Mechanics/Hydraulics/Pictures/tantaluscup.GIF

Our Tantalus.

Adding Water to the Filter

Gathering Water to feed the filter

Water gathering at the river. We learned that unless we have "water flotation devices" 4H will not allow us to let the kids get the water from the Little AuSable River.

Leader Matt collecting water.

Pre-filter Pictures

How to Build a BioSand Filter

Assembling the filter

First add the tube that will bring the water form the bottom of the filter back up to the spout at the top. The tube has holes in the ring to allow water to enter. Connect the top of the tube to the fitting for the spout at the top. 

Next add the rock layer. Add 2 inches of washed gravel. Ensure the circle of tubing is completely covered.

Next add a barrier layer (feed bag with a hole for the plastic tubing).

Put the barrier over the rocks.

 

Add approximately 2 inches of small pea gravel.

 

Make sure the barrier level is covered on the bottom.

Add a second barrier layer.

Fill with sand. Fill just below the connection for the “Faucet”

Add a diffuser.

Now you are ready to fill with water.

Operational Filter Pictures

Here are a few pictures of both filters in thier operational state.

 Side-by-side filters:

The  filter covers to prevent "something" (mice, bugs, extra dust, etc) from falling in the filter.

 

In the top of the filter, we  have a plastic container with holes. This acts as a diffuser for the water we add to the system on a daily basis. 

23 Feb Video

Video and photography team met to divide up the video editing.

Marshall and Dosti were present.

How to Test Water for E-Coli (VIDEO)

Monday 20 February 2012

The video team met to begin editing the photos and videos and took videos of building the biosandfilter.
The accounting team submitted receipts and  balanced the budget.   
The personnel team updated the blog.
The fabrication team added water to the filter.

The Attendance: Harrison, Grace, Tianze, Alex,  and Marshall.

Filter Prep Work at the Fire House

When we moved the filter to the firehouse, some of the rocks and pebbles at the bottom of the filter got mixed. To re-build the filter, the rocks needed to be sorted and layered separately.

Members picked the large gravel out and placed them in buckets. Every so often, the team shook the tray so all the remaining gravel would rise to the surface.

Biosand Filter Work Pictures

Building a Biosand filter

Carrying washed rocks

 

Matt explaining the process

Adding Sand