Science Report

Group Members: Ari (22), Yeh Jou (23), Jia Hao (29), Darren (30) & Sheng Jia (33)

Title:

Exploration of How Water Moves Through Soil

Introduction and Aim:

There are a few differences between the soils that we have which are sand, topsoil or potting soil and lastly clay soil. The topsoil has the most nutrients present in the soil followed by the clay soil and lastly sand. The sand particle is also larger in size compared to the clay particle. In our project, we are conducting two different type of experiment. The aim for our first experiment is to find out which soil allows the least water to pass through after 5 minutes. The aim for the second project is to find out the time taken for the water that pass through the different type of soil to reach 50 ml.

Experimental Design and Procedure:

Task 1:

      (a)   Plan of Experimental Design

There are some factors that affect how much water a soil is able to hold. One of them is the soil texture which is the size of the soil particle. Our hypothesis is that sand will allow most water to pass through it. The question we are investigating is ‘Which soil is the best at reducing the rate of the water passing through it?’. The independent variable is the type of soil, while the dependent variable is the amount of water that is collected in the beaker (the bottom part of the plastic bottle that is used to collect the water that passed through the soil) after 5 minutes. The constants in the experiment include the amount of water poured into the soil, the mass of the soil, the size of the bottle and the time given to let the water pass through the soil. In this experiment, we assumed that the soil are of the same mass, the shape of the bottles are the same and that the fine mesh does not affect water flow.

      (b)   Procedures

The apparatus we used were 3 plastic bottle (1.5 litres), 400g of sand, topsoil and clay soil, 3 piece of fine mesh, 3 100ml measuring cylinder, 3 250ml beaker, 1 electronic balance, 3 stopwatch, 3 hand lens, 3 plastic spoons and a few plastic bags.

Procedure:

      1)     Firstly, cut the bottles into two parts, the bottle top and the beaker.

      2)     Using the plastic spoon, scoop some topsoil and put in the plastic bag.

      3)     Put the plastic bag on the electronic balance to weigh the soil and remove the excess soil or add in soil till the soil weighs 150g.

      4)     Cover the mouth of the bottle with the fine mesh.

      5)     Pour the topsoil that was weighed, into the bottle top

      6)     Pour water into the beaker and using the beaker slowly pour the water into the measuring cylinder till it reach 100ml.

      7)     After that, start the stopwatch and pour the water (in the measuring cylinder) onto the topsoil.

      8)     After 5 minutes, remove the bottle top and pour the water collected in the bottle beaker into a measuring cylinder.

      9)     Read the reading using a hand lens and record it on the paper.

    10)  Then, repeat step 2 to 9 with sand and clay soil.

    11)  Afterwards, repeat step 2 to 10 again.

Task 2:

(     a)   Plan of Experiment Design

There are some factors that affect how much water a soil is able to hold. One of them is the soil texture which is the size of the soil particle. Our hypothesis of the experiment of the experiment is that when the water is poured in the clay soil, the water will take the most time to reach 50ml among the other 2 soils. The question we are investigating is ‘Which soil is the best at reducing the amount of water passing through it’. The independent variable is the type of soil, while the dependent variable is the amount of time taken for the water that passed through the soil to reached 50ml. The constants in the experiment include the amount of water poured into the soil, the mass of the soil, the amount of water collected in the bottle top (the bottom part of the plastic bottle that is used to collect the water that passed through the soil). In this experiment, we assumed that the soil are of the same mass, the shape of the bottles are the same and that the fine mesh does not affect water flow.

(     b)   Procedures

The apparatus we used were 3 plastic bottle (1.5 litres), 400g of sand, topsoil and clay soil, 3 piece of fine mesh, 3 100ml measuring cylinder, 3 250ml beaker, 1 electronic balance, 3 stopwatch, 3 hand lens, 3 plastic spoons, a few plastic bags and a marker

Procedure:

      1)     Pour some water into a beaker and using the beaker; slowly pour the water into the measuring cylinder till it reach 50ml.

      2)     Pour the water in the measuring cylinder in the bottle beaker, and use a marker to mark where the water stops.

      3)     Using the plastic spoon, scoop some topsoil and put it in the plastic bag.

      4)     Put the plastic bag on the electronic balance to weigh the topsoil and remove the excess topsoil or add in topsoil till the topsoil weighs 120g. (120g was used because there was a lack of dry soil as the soil took too long to dry)

      5)     Cover the mouth of the bottle with the fine mesh.

      6)     Pour the 120g of topsoil into the bottle top.

      7)     Pour some water into a beaker and using the beaker slowly pour the water into the measuring cylinder till it reached 100ml.

      8)     After that, start the stopwatch and pour the water onto the topsoil.

      9)     Once the water in the bottle beaker reached the marking, stop the stopwatch and record the timing.

    10)  Repeat step 1 to 9 with sand and clay soil.

    11)  Afterwards, repeat step 1 to 10 again.

Task 1 Results

Type of soil used	Amount of water collected at 1st trial/ml	Amount of water collected at 2nd trial/ml	Average/ml
Topsoil	33.0	36.0	34.5
Clay	46.0	47.0	46.5
Sand	50.0	58.0	54.0

Task 2 Results

Type of soil used	Time taken for 1st trial/s	Time taken for 2nd trial/s	Average/s
Topsoil	26.0	18.0	22.0
Clay	19.0	13.0	16.0
Sand	18.0	13.0	15.5

Analysis and Discussion of Results

From task 1, the soil that stored the most amount of water is the topsoil as the average amount of water collected using topsoil was the lowest among the rest of the types of soil after 5 minutes. This shows that topsoil is most effective for storing water as after 5 minutes, most of the water would have flowed through the sand and the remaining water would the ones stored in the sand. For task 2, the soil that reduced the rate of water flow the most was the topsoil as it took on average the longest time for water to pass through it. This shows that topsoil is most effective for reducing the rate of water flow as for water to reach the 50 ml mark, it would take quite a short period of time and thus most of the water would still have been flowing through the soil rather than be stored in them. As a result, the rate of the water flow could be deduced from this experiment which showed that topsoil was the most effective at reducing the rate of water flow. From this analysis, we deduced that topsoil is the finest soil as it stored the most amount of water as well reduced the rate of water the most and sand is the largest grade of soil as it not only allowed most water to pass through it, it also reduced the rate of water flow the worst on average.






Conclusion

The conclusion to make is that topsoil is the best soil to use for the problem as it not only reduces the rate of flooding, it reduces the amount of flooding as well according to our data collated which is the most beneficial to use in the situation.

Areas for Further Study and Research

The suggestions to make the experiment more accurate and reliable is that we can repeat the experiment 2 more times, use instruments to try and make each set-up identical to improve accuracy and reliability, use techniques and practice to reduce carelessness and errors before and during the experiment and check, scrutinize and make sure that the conditions of the surroundings as well as other factors do not interfere or affect the experiment’s overall reliability.
We have also found out soil retents water mainly due to its pores. Its pores are affected by the grade of the soil particle which varies from rough to fine. The bigger the soil particles are, the bigger the pores are and the more the water can pass through it and vice versa.

References

(Did not take note of the websites when during research)

Duty List & Acknowledgement

Group consist of Sheng Jia (Group Leader), Jia Hao, Darren, Yeh Jou, Ari

Sheng Jia was in-charge of the clay soil set-up for both task. Darren and Ari was in-charge of the topsoil set-up for both task. Jia Hao and Yeh Jou was in-charge of the sand set-up for both task

Photographs taken during the experiments