Introduction: During this project, we were given the task of coming up with world problem and find a way to solve it using biology. The first step, was to brainstorm a bunch of world problems and choose our favorite. For our world problem, we chose the energy crisis, because it seemed to be a very pressing matter. Then, we brainstormed a ton of different solutions to our problem. In order to decide on what our final solution was, we came up with the best three solutions, and made a poster to receie feedback on which solution seems the most probable. Our final choice was algae biofuel for a multitude of reasons. Most important of all, algae biofuel was by far the easiest solution to implement and solve compared to our other two solutions, solar energy, and nuclear reactors. After we had made this decision, we did a lot of research into algae biofuels, their viability, their cost, and their downsides. Finally, we turned this into a google slides, and present it to our class and a couple members of biotech companies. As another part of project we a log the goals we wanted to complete every day, if we completed them, and what problems we had if any.Overall, I believe this project was a great learning experience. Steps of our project:
Concepts: Algae Biofuel: Using Algae's plentiful natural oils to replace fossil fuels; energy rich and efficient.
Energy Crisis: Millions of people world wide have little or no energy and the people who have it, a large amount of it is almost unusable or ineffective.
Fossil Fuels: Fossil Fuels are traditional fuels used in present day cars, planes and trains; they also cause pollution and an excess of C02 in the atmosphere.
Pollution: Pollution is something done to the planet that is harmful or poisonous, in our projects case it is C02
CO2: Waste product from humans breathing, as well as a byproduct from burning fossil fuels; C02 builds up in the atmosphere creating a warming effect on the Earth, otherwise known as Global Warming.
Reflection: This was probably one of, if not the best project that I have done all year for many reasons. First of all, we were able to choose our group mates, which I think really allowed our group to thrive since we were already acquaintances. Being close, also allowed us to create very great ideas and easily agree on a solution. Second of all, I had an entire year of biotech knowledge on my belt to help me solve the world problem. This reduced the amount of research required to complete this project because I already had most of the knowledge. However, there were a few problems. First of all, we were occasionally distracted which set back our project a few hours. But on the other hand, when we worked, we worked very hard, which mad it very easy to come back from the time we had lost. Another downside was that we got distracted by other groups once or twice. This most likely contributed to the loss of time that we had, but as already discussed we solved this problem by working hard on the days we worked. Overall, I believe this was an absolutely amazing project filled with fun times, and, although we were distracted, great work.