2- How does water contamination affect freshwater fish (salmon)?

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS: Please write a science proposal on the given topic below and
make sure to follow the ALL requirements below.
TOPIC: How does water contamination affect freshwater fish (salmon)?
Requirements:
1. Proposal contains pertinent sections (Intro, Materials and Methods, Potential Results,
Discussion/Conclusions.
2. Proposal is two pages in length.
3. Proposal provides an analysis of previously-collected data including statistical methods
and supporting graph(s).
4. Proposal contains an appropriate hypothesis and rationale.
5. Proposal includes appropriate in-text citations (APA format) from the articles provided.
6. Proposal includes an appropriate interpretation of potential findings (e.g. what does this
project meant for the community with regard to the American River?)
Intro:
– The Introduction should begin with background information related to the hypothesis (the
importance of water in the aquatic ecosystem, salmon is an important food source to the
human population, etc.)
– Clearly state your hypothesis and the reason that you think your hypothesis will be
correct
– Thesis: Salmon populations in areas with contaminated water are more likely to decrease
than those in normal and healthy water environments as water contamination could cause
changes in the food web, depletion in oxygen, and rising in temperature, all of which will
lead to disease outbreaks that could negatively affect the salmon populations.
– A statement on benefits of constructing this topic of studying and why it deserves funding
– State your reasoning/rationale as a separate sentence. Do not use “because”.
o “Testing this hypothesis will provide valuable information related to……”.
o “Testing this hypothesis will help provide information that is necessary to
understand….”
Materials & Methods:
*This section should include all of the information of a typical methods section just worded as a
proposal. It should be worded in future tense.*
o ”We propose to test the hypothesis by…..”
o “We plan to collect data over a 2 year period…..”
o “We will use _____________tools to collect our data. Our projected sample
size will be…….We will analyze our data using__________________”
– Please add any additional materials you could think of for this experiment
– Methods: Please elaborate the paragraph below
I propose to test this hypothesis by collecting two samples of salmon (50 fishes in each
sample) from the same area in the American River and placing them into two different
water environments. The first sample will be placed in a tank with a desirable water
condition; while the other will be placed in a water tank mixed with sewage waste. In
order to get the most accurate result, both tanks will be the same size containing the same
amount of water taken from the source and they both will be placed under the same
temperature. They will be fed with the same amount of food at the same time….
Potential Results:
* Include an analysis from the preliminary data that you have been provided as well as
statements regarding what you believe the results of your study will be*
First refer to the preliminary experiment that was done;
o “A preliminary study on the effect of fertilizer in the american river showed
that invertebrate richness declines in the presence of fertilizer (p=.002,Figure 1).”
o “We believe that our results which also study the impact of humans on the
American river parkway will show……………
o “We predict that our average for the ___________________group will be
__________________________, and for the ____________________group it
will be __________________________”
– You can either compare the species richness or the species abundance between the control
group and experimental group
– Analyze the potential results of the studied topic
Discussion/Conclusion:
*In this section you will discuss what you will believe will be the importance of your findings*
o “Our results will help provide wildlife managers with information related
to………..”.
o “Our results will help policymakers make better informed decisions related
to……”
– You will also state potential sources of error.
o “In gathering this information it will be important to avoid bias related to….”
o “Researchers will need to be careful to avoid_________________in order to
avoid erroneous data collection”
– You will also need to state what research may follow yours.
o “Although this research will answer vital questions related
to_______________________ it will be important following this study to pursue
information relate to_______________________________”
– Sum up the experiment and why this topic is worth studying