Outline: The going "green" project was easy enough for my whole family to follow, hard enough to
make me think critically because of all the data that needed tending to, and a good way to
measure how much water could be saved by taking simple steps in our everyday lives. The project
involves my whole family taking regular showers for one week. They record their time and the
height of the water in the 56 by 21 inch bathtub. After the first week my family will turn off the
water while shampooing and soaping to try and conserve water for another week. Each day the
volume off the water in the tub will be converted into gallons. The total amount of gallons will be
added up every day and at the end of each week. The data will be gathered, compared, and
analyzed.
Conclusion: My hypothesis was accepted because less water was used by turning off the water
while shampooing and soaping. The first week used 656.2844 gallons of water but the second
week only used 632.5439. The week of turning off the water (second week) used 23.7405 less
gallons of water then the week when the water was kept on the whole length of the shower (first
week).
Analysis: For the most part this experiment went very well and according to plan. The data was a
little shocking because the difference in gallons used between the two weeks was thought to be
higher but only varied by 24 gallons. The data was gathered easily and willingly with the help of
the participants. They were more then happy to aid in this experiment. There were multiple
factors that were difficult to record and keep track of. One of the problems was to be able to trust
the participants. The experiment relied on them to keep truthful data of the length of shower and
height of the water after usage. They could have easily lied or copied data from another person. A
different problem was that it might have been hard to get accurate measurements because the
ruler had hard to see numbers. The data is accurate on how many gallons the shower used but
may be a little out of place because of the length of showers. If a participant took a longer shower,
then they would have used more water instead of a person who took a shorter shower. This is not
a major problem because most of the shower lengths were close to the other weeks times. The
experiment could have been done better by calculating the length of showers into the data to
create a more accurate result in how many total gallons were used or using a constant length of
shower. The measurements could have more accurate by using smaller decimals to get an exact
height but would not have went over well with the participants.
Attitude: My attitude towards being "green" has changed a little bit because of the data found.
I think that turning off the shower while shampooing and soaping is a great way to conserve
energy but many people would not do it. Most people just want to get in the shower and get
out without putting the few extra steps into turning it off and on. My family feels it is too much
work for such little progress and no one would continue to do it. They think it is not worth it and
there are many other ways to be "green." I think one person cannot make a difference on the
environment by themselves. There are too many people to outweigh your good deeds with their
bad habits of not being "green." Living "green" impacts me directly because it enriches the
environment I'm living in and gives m a good feeling inside. The day to day eco-friendly decisions
add up to years which can benefit me and everyone else positively.
