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Environmental Pollution Science Fair Project

Activated Carbon vs. Pesticide Toxicity

Hard
Activated Carbon vs. Pesticide Toxicity | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Can activated carbon neutralize a deadly pesticide? Malathion kills flies within 30 minutes on its own. But spraying the poisoned surface with activated carbon solution may change the outcome. You spray malathion on overripe bananas and place them in aquarium tanks with flies. Some bananas also get a coating of activated carbon solution at different strengths. You then count how many flies survive over one hour. The results show whether higher doses of activated carbon protect more flies from the pesticide.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that a higher concentration of activated carbon will neutralize the pesticide malathion and flies will be able to survive, even though they are exposed to the pesticide.

Method & Materials

You will catch 40 flies, prepare 3 spray containers with different concentrations of activated carbon, and place 4 over-ripe bananas in 4 aquariums. You will then spray the bananas with malathion pesticide and release 10 flies into each aquarium. You will observe the number of flies still alive every 10 minutes.
You will need 40 flies, plastic bags, 4 over-ripe bananas, a digital weighing scale, a measuring cylinder, a bottle of distilled water, a bottle of activated carbon, a can of malathion pesticide spray, 4 empty aquarium tanks with top cover, a knife, and 3 spray containers.

Results

The results showed that using a higher concentration of activated carbon increased the survival rate of the flies. This proves that activated carbon can neutralize the pesticide malathion and save flies from certain death.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting and unique because it shows how activated carbon can be used to neutralize a pesticide and save lives.

Also Consider

To make the results more reliable, you could try repeating the experiment using a larger number of flies or a larger number of pesticide concentrations. You could also try repeating the experiment by comparing the effectiveness of activated carbon in neutralizing other types of pesticides.

Full project details

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