Genius Hour Zero Waste

For my second Genius Hour, I chose to study a topic about living a zero waste lifestyle. In fact, my research question was: How does living zero waste change our lives and Earth to the point that it impacts both of them making them healthier?

I decided to investigate about this topic because I had watched many interesting videos by an expert on zero waste named Lauren Singer on ways to reduce waste, where trash ends up, and after a while, I started to get very hooked to this topic. Another reason I decided to investigate about zero waste is because:

(imgflip)

There were some basic things I knew about this topic, but overall, I was very impressed with the new things I learned.

The first thing to learn is the 5 R rules of living a zero waste lifestyle:

(Ramos)

While looking at an awesome zero waste blog called “Going Zero Waste” by another zero waste expert, Kathryn Kellogg, I learned the most productive ways to reduce waste at home:

  • Compost 

    (Ramos)

Composting is combining organic matters together for a period of time in a way where it’ll decompose to create great soil. Some composable things include egg shells, non-plastic tea bags, toilet paper cores, leaves, cereal boxes, fruit scraps… As a matter of fact, 25% of the things we throw away is compostable, including the organic matters discussed above. There are many types of composting such as digging a hole (easiest way), worm box or Vermicomposting (special machine). But it doesn’t matter which way you do it, you’ll be helping the ecosystem greatly by composting!

  • Reusable bags & jars

Bags– Although there are many places were plastic bags are not allowed, there are still many places where plastic bags are  given to you every time you buy something, specially in Africa. That’s why, instead of spending money on buying plastic bags, and then throwing them away, buy a fabric bag, and use it as many times as you want without polluting the earth and oceans. Keep at least 5 fabric bags from every size in your car and door knob so every time you leave home, you have reusable bag in hand.

(Pixabay)

Jars– As for the jars, it only comes in handy when buying at special shops. In fact, in some food shops you need o bring your own reusable jar because these shops have long tubes with ingredients such as beans, pasta, candy, where you open the tube, and fill your jar with as much quantity as you want, then, you pay depending on the size of your jar. This is a great invention because you take as much quantity as you are going to spend and no plastic is wasted on packaging.

  • Create your own DIY products

Making your own DIY products can be a great way to reduce waste, mostly because you avoid buying all those containers where make-up or shampoo is stored. Creating your own DIY products isn’t only great for the environment, but also for your health, because you use natural products and you know what you put in them.

  • Use Multitaskers

Instead of buying a thousand bottles of different shampoo for the hair, try using less because once you use all the substance inside the container, the bottle will end up as trash in the ocean for sure. And, soap is soap, so using one type of shampoo for body, hands and hair will work great anyway. Ex: Kiratine- it is used for the hair, but can also be used to moisturize the lips and it can be used as lotion.

  • Keep it real!

Do whatever you can to reduce trash!


How to stop consuming waste while buying:

  • SECOND HAND

    (Pixabay)

Second hand is super useful and while buying clothes, furniture, objects and toys. The reasons are because:

  1. You stop being a consumer
  2. You reduce waste – buying something that has already been used gives it a new opportunity before being thrown away.
  3. You become community friendly – the money goes to NGOs or to organizations that need the money, not to really rich people.
  4. It is way cheaper!
  • FARMER’S MARKET

    (Flickr)

Buying food is the way that we consume the most waste due to almost everything in the supermarket being packaged. However, the farmers market is a place where food is sold without any plastic covering them, just like in the picture: If people bought often from the farmer’s market or shops with dispensers, a lot of waste wouldn’t be used and thrown to the ocean.


Now, the question is, why do we need to care about trash?

We’ll, it’s simple, because it is all being stored in the same planet as we live in and it is affecting the life of all human beings. In fact, when we throw all of those big plastic bags full of trash we have been accumulating into the big container, very little gets recycled, while most of it goes directly into the ocean polluting it in many different ways. After it is in the ocean, it divides up into five different gyres; a whirl of water in which waste accumulates and stays there for a very long time. The biggest gyre is in the Pacific Ocean and it affects a hundred thousand of sea animals per year.

As a matter of fact, the 7 things that often end up in the ocean are:

(Ramos)

What I have learned will help me as a person in the future because while living in Senegal, some of the things I can’t do such as going to ecosystem markets or ride a bike to go to school, or recycle paper when trowing it away, however it just makes me more eager to do these things when I go back to Spain, because here I can’t do them because of restrictions. Also, I have started to realize that little things make a change too, so even if it is saving paper, or accumulating less or getting rid of the stuff you don’t really need, I am helping the environment.

Also, this project has tough me to educate my family, for example, with my sister, I made a nest for birds to eat different seeds out of an egg carton. What I learned honestly helps everyone; the community, animals, myself and the world. If we created less trash, we would breath cleaner air. If we created less trash, hundreds of thousands of sea animals wouldn’t be sick per year. If we created less trash, the north pole wouldn’t be melting as much!

I am not really sure what I will learn in my next Genius Hour project, but I would like it to have something to do about fashion / sewing or how to become more flexible. I know my next project has to be something that helps the world, but I’m not really sure about that yet…  :l

(Waste Shifter)

Images Cited

Jakbraun. “Second- hand-lettering-dresses”. Pixabay, June, https://pixabay.com/en/second-hand-lettering-dresses-2353682/. February 28. 2018.

Waste Shifter, “Human Foortprints”. Twiter,  7 december 2017, https://twitter.com/WasteShifter/status/938704684000464896. 10 March, 2018.

Sheffield, Allen. “Dallas Farmers Market 2”. Flickr, July 10, 2011, https://www.flickr.com/photos/awsheffield/5932294914. February 28, 2018.

Van, Alex. “Food M M Candy Candies Children’s Sweets Colorful.” Pixabay, 16 Jan. 2014, pixabay.com/en/food-m-m-candy-candies-246221/.

Leo, Killer Di. “Rising Sea Levels, Pollution, Overpopulation…” Imgflip, Meme Generator, imgflip.com/i/tf2fx.

 

SBC 5 After School

Hi everyone!
Today I am going to talk about what I want to be and do once I finish school.

One thing you need to know is that I am a BIG dreamer, so my dreams for the future can be a little bit crazy, just letting you know.

If you have read my “All about ME” page, you might have noticed that I LOVE sewing. I make a lot of my clothes as well as some dresses and skirts for both my mum and my little sister. When I sew, I feel like I have the power! You can do whatever you want. You probably know that feeling when you go to buy a t-shirt and you like it so much that you end up buying it. But inside, you just can help thinking about what you would like to change about that piece of clothing. Maybe the color is too bright, or the length is too long, or you don’t really like the picture in the center of the t-shirt. Well, guess what, being the designer of your own clothes can make your clothes be exactly how you want them to be like. This is why in the future, I would like to become a…

fashion designer!Image result for fashion designer (iStock)

On the other hand…

However, I would really like to work on something that would help the environment and nature because I think we, the humans are producing a lot of waste and we need to get rid of that or find a solution to this problem if we want to keep our beautiful Earth safe. That’s why, another option I have of what I would like to become in the future is an Agricultural Engineer. Plus, I enjoy math and science.  (flickr)

So, to make both of my dreams come true, I decided to do this:

  • Build a tiny house  (flickr)

Yes, I want to build my own house, well, I want to build a tiny house, which is normally about 46 m^2. Pretty small, right? Here are some reasons why I want to do so: Building your own house totally relates to what I was talking about in the fashion designer section. 1) If I build my own tiny house, I can design it however I want.  2) I want to live a life with the things I really need and to learn to minimize and to get rid of things that I don’t actually use or need. And this relates to the environment, because now we are consuming a lot of things that we’ll later need to throw away. 3) Since the space is reduced, there are many secret places in the house, like under the couch, there is a box full of skiing equipment, or the bed might be in the ceiling. Isn’t it fun! Another reason I want to live in a tiny house is because 4) I want to travel around the world and visit as many countries as I can. Traveling with my house is way easier that trying to look for houses or hotels and after all, you’ll never feel the same living in another place than your home sweet home.

I got my inspiration from an awesome tiny house women called Jenna that built her own tiny house and makes videos about other tiny houses that she visits. Here is the link to her amazing blog about interesting things of living a tiny house life and other important fact: https://tinyhousegiantjourney.com/

  • Live a zero waste life

Living a zero waste life means reducing the amount of trash you produce, meaning not using trash such as plastic, containers or rubber. For example, if you go to the supermarket, you bring your own bags made out of fabric and your own jars instead of taking plastic bags which are one of the dangerous material in the Earth. Living a zero waste life also means creating some of your own products like toothpaste and lotion. Like the tiny house, living zero waste means reducing the amounts of things you have because they are going to end up in the trash anyway. You also learn to compost which is a great way to recycle and produce soil.

Here is the link to the blog of a great example about a women living zero waste called Lauren Singer who makes videos and blog post about how living like this can be awesome: http://trashisfortossers.com/

So as a summery, when I leave school, I want to become a fashion designer who lives zero waste in a tiny house traveling the world with my cat Tortilla. 🙂 This way, I can do both of my hobbies, create clothes, and help the environment.

Works cited

“Fashion Designer.” IStock, 25 July 2016, www.istockphoto.com/photo/fashion-designer-gm544667458-97945245?esource=SEO_GIS_CDN_Redirect.

Aqua Mechanical, director. Biotechnology Engineer Examining Immature Corn Cob on FieldFlickr, Flickr, 16 Feb. 2016, www.flickr.com/photos/aquamech-utah/24954081852.

Ben Chun, director. The ShedFlickr, Flickr, 14 June 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/benchun/3625699371.

SBC4 Organizing a party

We always struggle to organize a party. We often doubt on whether our guests are going to like the games prepared, the food, the music or the decoration.

Here are some great and fun ideas and games for your party:

Games:

  • Gift game:

This is a fun game to give the guests a little present to thank them for coming. You can make different decorative sacs with different things inside them: Candy, bracelets, nail polish, stickers, thank you cards, cool pencils… Anything you want! Then, put each sac inside an ugly plastic bag and cover them in a way that no one can see what is inside. Next put all the gifts together in a big table. Take two decks of cards, it is better with the standard cards, but it also works with the UNO cards. Distribute all of the cards in the first deck to the guest and keep the other deck to yourself. Everyone’s packet of cards should be facing down. Lift the first card, show it to the guests and tell them to lift their first card. The person who has the same card as you, gets to pick the first gift from the table. The game proceeds until everyone has got their gift. The next person that gets the same card as you can switch gifts with whoever he/she wants. And finally, everyone can open their gifts!

  • Would you rather & Time’s up:

Would you rather questions are very fun when you have several questions planned out. To make sure you’ve got enough, collect questions out from any website and print them out. Then, cut them in pieces, fold them in four and put them inside a glass jar.

For time is up, you can do the same thing but with names of famous things like celebrities, movies, books, authors, actors… (make sure everyone knows the famous things). Here are the rules to play Time’s up: Divide the guests into 3 or 2 teams. Provide a number of famous things to imitate. The first round, they have to describe it. The second round, the have to describe with only one word. The third and final round, they have to act it out. After each round, you count the number of papers you got right and the one with most papers has won the round.

Decoration:

  • Lanterns:

Rounded paper lamps are the best for a birthday party specially if they are of different colors. They give a cheerful atmosphere whether they are lit up or not.

  • The “Selfie Corner”

Selfies can become more fun when using mustaches, bows, fancy glasses and hats right? You can put a fancy fabric or tablecloth in a wall and put some sticks with fancy drawings of accessories in a cup for people to take funny selfies. You can also provide hats, wigs or masks.

Food:

  • Fruit brochettes

This snack is healthy as well as very refreshing specially when living in a country like Senegal. Pick many different types of fruit like pineapples, mango, strawberries, oranges and watermelon. Keep them in the fridge for a good amount of time so they are cooler. Then, take different pieces and place them through a wood stick. Ready to go!

  • Mini pizzas

This lunch is easy and individual. Lather than having a big pizza for everyone, you can make mini pizzas so everyone has it’s own. You can even make them different for people’s taste. Some might not like olives in the pizza, others might like a lot of mushrooms, others might not want pork… This is a meal to please everyone!

Please, answer in the comment section some of this questions or make your own post about them, but remember to come back to leave your URL so I can visit your post:

What would be your ideal party?

What traditional games does your family play in parties?

What is the only thing you would extremely need to organize a party? (it can be fabric, drinks, games… )

Creating my little me

Hello!

Just to give a little more information about me, I’m going to explain my avatar which I created by used the application called “Face Q”

My mini me is called Ali and she looks pretty much like me. My hair is dark brown and most of the time I wear it in a high messy bun. My eyes are big, but they are very dark brown, not like my avatars. My favorite article of clothing are the cardigans as well as the hippie pants because they make me feel relaxed and calm, plus, they always have beautiful patterns in them. One of my favorite activities is painting, and writing, that’s why my avatar holds what looks like a pencil as well as a paintbrush. That’s pretty much the description of my avatar and me!

How do I learn best?

How I learn best is by watching other people do it, and then repeat it. I like watching people doing it first, and then do it myself. I also learn when the teachers repeat several times what we have to do, since for me technology is a little difficult. Lastly, I am a person who asks a lot of questions, so I would do so to learn better. This are the things that I do to learn better. -Alicia Ramos

My expectations for technology class.

My expectations for this class are very simple. I would like to learn simple things that will help me later on but also cool things about technology such as making robots and other things. My expectations would be to be fluent making blogs, and being able to discover new websites were we can learn things about technology. This are my expectations for technology class. -Alicia Ramos

Acetone & Water melting a foam cup Experiment.

Try this out! Take a foam cup and some acetone, or nail polish remover. Then, put on a plate some acetone, and on top of it, the foam cup. It will literally melt, and form a weird kind of clay! Isn’t it cool?

FKP96OOHQQLNSFR.SQUARE2.jpg (130×130)

How fast can a foam cup melt with different amount of acetone?

IV (independent variable): Different amount of acetone.                                                                                                                 DV (dependent variable): How fast the foam cup melts?

Now, try this same thing increasing the amount of acetone.                                                                                                           My Hypothesis was that the foam cup would melt faster as it had more liquid helping it out. And it was true!     We increases the amount of acetone, timed how fast the cup melted, and it was faster each time.

10 millimeters of acetone 15 millimeters of acetone 20 millimeters of acetone
56 seconds for the glass to melt 50 seconds for the glass to melt 40 seconds for the glass to melt

Based on our data, we can conclude that by increasing the amount of acetone, the foam cup will melt faster and easier.

This a chart of our process:                                                                                                                                                                   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GrnkT9-sd6StQsNPhpFVVAw9GjW7Z-OrBZAJe_rlN9c/edit

How fast would the foam glass melt if we add to the acetone a little bit of water?

IV: Amount of water.                                                                                                                                                                               DV: How fast will the foam cup melt?

Once you have tried this experiment, try to do it again but changing things. Instead of just putting acetone to your plate, add some water to it. Before I did it, my hypothesis was: Water isn’t going to affect the acetone at all, so maybe the acetone will make the foam cup melt slower.

5 ml of acetone & 5 ml of water 10 ml of acetone & 5 ml of water 10 ml of acetone & 1 ml of water
NO reaction NO reaction NO REACTION!

Well, no at all! Even if we added 1 milliliter of water to 10 milliliters of acetone, the foam cup wouldn’t melt! Do you want to know why?: Water has a higher boiling point (100 C) than acetone does, (56 C), due to the hydrogen boiling molecules between them. That’s why!

Based on our data, we can conclude that water is more powerful that acetone when they come together.

This is a chart of our process:                                                                                                                                                               https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WED4YufIOjRlBB-PyqJoqzusRm-IStsuwvirTt80r-E/edit

That’s all of our experiment “Acetone & Water melting a foam cup Experiment.” !

 

 

 

Light vs Dark experiment

We did an experiment in class based on how fast plants could grow on different types of light.

We putted tree seeds in a plastic little box, in top of a wet cardboard. The first box, we putted it on a place with electric light for 24 hours. The second one, we putted it inside a closet for 24 hour. The last one, we placed it at the window (12 hour light).

My hypothesis was that the tallest plant was going to be the one placed on the window because natural light is the most important light for plants. The second tallest one, I thought it would be the one with electric light because for a plant it is essential the light. And the last one, the one in the dark. “Plants can’t grow without light” I thought.

Here is a table with my results of the experiment:

1st tallest= 24h dark (no light) 2nd tallest= 12h natural light 3th tallest= 24h electric light
20mm tall 9mm tall 0mm tall

1- Isn’t it wierd how the tallest one is the plant in 24 hour light? Well, here is why: Actually, the plant inside the seed was so nervous to come out, that it used all the energy it had for the plant to go out. But if we had kept the plant more our in the closet, it will have died because it had wasted all the energy it had.

2- The second tallest, it’s the plant with natural light, because plants need natural light from the sun.

3- And last, the third plant was the last one because a plant can’t grow with electrical light. It needs to be natural light.