July 5th 2003: constructed wetlands topic is chosen.

July 6th -August 31st 2003: I began researching wetlands on the Internet, and searching for books on the subject using the catalogue at the local public library.

September 7th 2003: After several unsuccessful visits to public libraries, I visited the Royal Botanical Gardens library, where I obtained several books on the subject of wetlands and water pollution.

October 11th 2003: I sent out seven letters to professors at McMaster University asking for any recent information on constructed wetlands.

October 13th 2003: I spoke with a man who attended the 2003 Wetlands conference. He promised to pass on some information from the meeting.

October 19th 2003: I received the wetlands information, on loan for several weeks.

October 21st 2003: I received a reply from McMaster professor Mike Waddington, recommending several journals on wetlands from the McMaster library.

November 1st 2003: After realizing that I had typed my father's email address incorrectly when listing possible methods of contacting me, I sent an email to each professor notifying them of my mistake.

November 5th 2003: I received another reply from McMaster professor Paulin Coulibaly, informing me that he has asked a graduate student working on wetlands, Melissa Greenwood to send some information on my topic.

November 11th 2003: I went to the McMaster Thode Library looking for the journals recommended by Dr Waddington but they were all on loan. I searched the Ebsco database for information on wetlands and found much information relevant to my science fair topic.

November 24th 2003: I attended a meeting at my school for registration for the local science fairs.

December 2nd 2003: My science teacher gave me the name of a McMaster professor, Susan Dudley, who specializes in plants. I found her email address on the Mc Master website and asked her for information on water plants.

December 3rd 2003: I haven't received any further replies. I contacted Marilyn Baxter of the Bay Area Restoration Council about possible purchase of water plants. She referred me to Heather, an employee of the Royal Botanical Gardens. I contacted Heather.

December 4th 2003: I received a reply from Heather. She said the only plants that were available were in dormancy. I replied, telling her that my experiment was going to be performed indoors. I asked if there was any way to force the plants out of dormancy. I found Marilyn Baxter's name on a list of participants in the Windermere Basin remediation project. I emailed, asking her if I could possibly obtain a sample to this water to attempt to purify.

December 6th 2003: Marilyn Baxter referred me to Dr George Sorger, a McMaster professor who, in the past, organized programs for high school students. I emailed him, and he offered to teach me how to culture and count bacteria I use to contaminate the water.

December 8th 2003: I met with Dr Sorger. We decided to use E. coli to pollute the water. We also decided to use distilled water, and sterilized soil in order to control their effects on the results.

December 10th 2003: I emailed Heather with the dimensions of the containers I will be using. She estimated I will need at least 12 plants per container. I decided to build to two wetlands. One with only Arrowhead, and the other with Giant Bur-reed.

December 11th 2003: I emailed Tom Crawford, the chief judge of BASEF 2004, asking him if I would be required to fill out forms safety forms prior to experimentation. He said that E. coli is considered a pathogen and therefore not safe for use outside of a lab. I checked the ISEF rules and they said that E. coli strain K12 was not considered a pathogen. Just to be sure, I emailed the chair of SRC, and asked her.

December 12th 2003: I received a reply from Nancy Aiello, the chair of SRC. She said that strain K12 was okay for unsupervised use. I emailed Dr Sorger asking him if strain K12 was the one he meant to use.

December 15th 2003: Dr Sorger replied. He said he had planned to use strain WP2, but had a colleague who could supply a strain of K12. I emailed Tom Crawford confirming that I would be allowed to use K12.

December 17th 2003: I sterilized 12L of soil following directions from a gardening book.

December 19th 2003: I received a reply from Tom Crawford. He agreed that K12 is not considered a pathogen.

December 20th 2003: I planted the Giant Bur-reed and Arrowhead in separate containers. I decided to allow them to establish themselves for two weeks before adding any E. coli.

December 20th- January 12th 2003: Left grow-lights on for 12 hours a day, turning them on at 7:00am, and off at 7:00pm.

January 1st 2004: Plants have just begun to grow. I decided to give them two more weeks before adding the E. coli.

January 8th 2004: The giant bur-reed have grown quite large. The arrowhead are becoming larger. Visited Dr Sorger. He taught me how to prepared the petri dishes and sterilized the materials necessary for growing bacteria. He advised me to switch the distilled water for bottled water, since the distilled water would kill the bacteria.

January 9th 2004: Visited Dr Sorger again today. He helped me sterilize several more pipettes that will be used for taking samples from the container once the E. coli has been added. We inoculated two of the dishes of hardened MacConkey's, one with K12 and one with WP2, incase the dye does not colour the K12.

January 12th 2004: Checked on E. coli strains in Dr Sorger's lab. The particular strain of K12 was not very clearly visible in the dye. We inoculated another dish with K12. If it is not visible either, I will need SRC approval prior to bring the bacteria home.

January 13th 2004: Added E. coli to containers today. Took samples prior to and after inoculating the water. Plated each set of samples in twice, once in a 100 L concentration and again in a 10 L concentration.

January 14th 2004: Plated today's samples, twice each in separate Petri dishes with different concentrations. Checked on wetland models. E. coli is visible on the soil of the container without plants. No bacteria can be seen in either of the containers with plants. Counted samples from yesterday and today. Recorded results.

January 15th 2004: Plated today's sample, three times each in separate Petri dishes with varying concentrations. Counted yesterday's samples, and recorded results.

January 16th 2004: Had my mom take pictures of me plating samples, and counting bacteria. Discussed further extensions for my project with Dr Sorger.

January 17th 2004: Checked on bacteria plates from yesterday, which I brought home. No bacteria was visible. I think this may have been because they were exposed to cold on the way home from the lab.

January 18th 2004: Checked on the bacteria plates again today. This time bacteria was visible on each one. I counted each plate and recorded the numbers.

January 21st 2004: I went to Dr Sorger's lab and showed him my results, which I put into chart form. I decided this was as far as I would take the experiment this year.

January 28th 2004: I notice the position of the pump in the Model C was causing the top layer of soil to turn over. I thought this may have contributed to the lower level of bacteria in this container, so I repositioned the pump.

February 1st 2004: I noticed the colour of the water in the container without plants has become murky. I think this may indicate an increase in the amount of bacteria in this model. I contacted Dr Sorger, asking if it was convenient for me to plate a final sample from each container. He replied, suggesting I come in February 5th.

February 5th 2004: I took the final sample today and plated it in Dr Sorger's lab.

February 6th 2004: Counted samples and recorded results

February 17th 2004: Discussed results with Dr Sorger. I thanked him for his help.