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Procedure:

Experiment # 1

1. Find ten materials and cut each in half, making each piece approximately five to ten centimeters in size.
2. Sand off any old dirt, auto paint, rough surfaces, and any old ABPF using an electric sander.
3. On a wood pallet, mix the ABPF in a ratio of 20:1 with cream hardener. Stir until the cream hardener is fully mixed with the plastic filler. You now have 2-4 minutes before the ABPF hardens.
4. Apply the ABPF to your materials, about 0.5 cm thick. Smooth it out and let it dry. Once all the ABPF has been used, scrape off your tools and pallet.
5. Continue steps three and four until each piece has been covered evenly by 2-3 layers.
6. Sand off the tops on each material until the plastic is smooth without any bumps or ridges.
7. Spray paint them gold with auto body lacer paint and let it dry.
8. Fill four buckets with 3.5 L of backyard soil and bury the materials. Add 400 mL of water to each bucket.
9. Seal each bucket with a lid.
10. Place the buckets beside the furnace in the basement.

Experiment # 2

1. Fill a large bucket with 4L of water.
2. Pour 1750 grams of road salt into the bucket.
3. Place four different materials into the bucket.
4. Seal each bucket with a lid.
5. Put the bucket down in the basement beside the furnace.

Experiment # 3

• Place 50 mL of soil from each of the five groups listed below into a 600 mL beaker
• Control
• Bucket # 1
• Bucket # 2
• Bucket # 3
• Bucket # 4
• Place 200 mL of distilled water into the beakers.
• Stir with a stirring rod.
• Measure pH with different types of pH paper.
• Measure pH with pH meter.
• Test pH of distilled water as a control.

Control Variables

 

Experiment # 1

• Each bucket’s dirt came from the same dirt source.
• All of the materials were in the dirt for 90 days.
• The same type of ABPF covered each material.
• Each material was coated in auto body paint from the same can.
• All the buckets were kept at the same temperature for the 90 days of burial.

Experiment # 2

• Each material was kept at the same temperature throughout the 90 days of burial.
• Each material lay in the same amount, type, and temperature of water for the 90 days of burial.
• All of the materials were in the water for 90 days.
• The same type of ABPF and the same type of auto paint covered each material.
• Each material lay in the same amount and type of road salt.

Experiment # 3

• Each sample of dirt was of the same quantity (50 mL).
• Each dirt sample lay in distilled water.
• Each sample of dirt lay in the distilled water for the same amount of time.
• Each dirt sample was tested for pH with the same type of pH paper and pH meter.
• Each dirt sample was taken from the four buckets containing materials as described in Experiment # 1.

Manipulated Variables

 

Experiment # 1

• The different types of materials buried in the buckets of soil.

Experiment # 2

• The different types of materials placed in the bucket of water and road salt.

Experiment # 3

• The different soil samples resulting from the degradation of the materials auto paint and ABPF buried in the buckets for 90 days.

Responding Variables

 

Experiment # 1

• The specific changes to the ten materials, auto paint and ABPF buried for 90 days.

Experiment # 2

• The specific changes in the four materials placed in the bucket of water and road salt.

Experiment # 3

The pH changes in the soil samples compared to the control soil sample.

Experimental Errors:

Some experimental errors I made during my experiments were:

• I buried my materials in buckets of backyard dirt and not a real landfill consisting of dirt mixed in with garbage, decaying and non-decaying materials.
• I did not have the yearly season changes that may bring frost, snow and freezing temperatures of winter and the hot temperatures of summer, that a landfill would normally experience affecting my materials.
• My materials were only in the dirt for three months, where as some autos have been in the landfills for many years, and may remain there for a very long time, possibly forever.
• My estimations on the amount of the degradation on the materials, ABPF and auto body paint, because they were based on my judgement.