Topperlearning.com features projects designed by students across the length and breadth of India. A Class IX student from Lucknow tells us all about her disaster management project, designed for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Science Exhibition contest conducted by NCERT.
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Name: Afsha N Khan
Class: IX
School: Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow
Afsha's Inspiration: Sympathy for the cruel deaths of marine life due to oil spills by ships, inspired her to design a working model, to help ships re-collect the oil, and thus, save marine life! "The chemical pollutants (fuel) cause gastric ulcers and high rate of parasitic infection to marine life. This project is effort to save marine life," she adds.
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Theme and Concept: Every ship needs additional machinery to re-collect the oil from the sea surface, in case of an oil spill.
Afsha, being an environment-conscious girl, created a model to demonstrate how this machinery works. She calls it Pollution Controller and Fuel Collector.
In The Picture: IXTOC I exploratory well blow-out on June 3,1997 in the Bay of Campeche of Cuidad del Carmen, Mexico. The accident resulted in an oil spillage of 140 million gallons! (Image sourced from Temple.edu)
The Principle: The adhesive property of aluminum attracts the oil components from the surface of water.
How it works: Aluminum foil covered discs are partially dipped in water (sea surface), then, made to rotate using the rotary pump. Due to the adhesive property of aluminum, they attract the oil components. The electric pipes attached to the discs, then, direct the oil into an empty container.
Materials Used:
- Thermacol
- Glazed and crape paper
- 1 Rotary pump
- Aluminium foil
- 3 CDs
- Petrol
- Water
- 3 Electric connection pipes
- 1 Container
How Afsha Did It:
Step 1: She designed a ship from the thermacol sheet on a hard board. Next, she dug a circular groove at the centre, and filled it with water and petrol.
Step 2: She connected the three CDs covered with aluminium foil, to the rotary pump, and made sure that all three discs rotated simultaneously, when the rotary pump is switched on. On rotation, the discs attracted the oil spill from the water surface.
Step 3: She cut the electric pipes in a longitudinal manner and attached it to the discs such that it did not hamper rotation. The rotation propelled the oil into the electric pipes, which then flowed into the empty container.
Top Blooper: The model worked well right up to the regional level of the contest. Just moments before the examiners were to review her project, it stopped!
The rotary motor had a circuitry fault. She immediately called the school electrician. Then disaster struck! While taking out the motor, some water and oil spilled over the hard board.
But a panic-stricken Afsha managed to keep her cool. "I bought some crape paper from the nearby stationary shop and covered the entire hard board with it. By this time, the electrician had also repaired the rotary motor and it started working again," recalls a relieved Afsha.
Moment of Glory: When we asked Afsha whether her project was appreciated or not, pat came her response, "Our principal Mrs Talwar along with some senior teachers, came to my bench. She gave me a pat and appreciated my efforts when I explained her working of my model. I was very happy taking my project to the regional level."
But Afsha's best moment was interacting with Dr Rakesh Tuli, Director of National Botanical Research Institute.
"He walked up to my desk, I explained the working of my model, and he liked it and appreciated my efforts," recalls Afsha, enthusiastically.
Real-life uses: Does Afsha's project have a significance in real life?
"Yes, it does. Cargo ships can use it to collect the oil after a spill, and help save marine life and the environment,"
concludes a confident Afsha.
Photograph: Bipasha Nandy
