Great Scot May 2020 Great Scot 159_MAY 2020_ONLINE_V3 | Page 37

PATRICK BAKER
(TOP, YEAR 9) AND
LEONARDO WANG
(LEFT, YEAR 9) COLLECT
MICROPLASTICS FROM
A SAMPLE WHILE FELIX
MACDONALD (RIGHT,
YEAR 8) DETERMINES
THEIR CLASSIFICATION
From the iconic Yarra River to the small
creek in your local park, Melbourne certainly
has a complex system of waterways. It’s
common for many major new housing
projects in Australia to include the central
feature of a lake or wetland. These oases are
scenic, and pleasant features for residents
— and they frequently take centre stage in
real estate advertising brochures.
But the serene lake surfaces may mask
a serious risk. How good is the quality of the
water? Are they sinks for pollution, potentially
posing risks to public health and local fauna?
Or do they play a key role in removing the
dross of urban life before it spills into Port
Phillip Bay?
A group of Scotch Years 8 and 9 boys
wants to find out. The boys are participating
in WATERisLIFE, a global project that calls
on young people to tackle emerging water
issues around Australia and worldwide. The
boys have designed a research project to
survey water quality in urban Melbourne, in
particular tracking chemical contaminants
and microplastics from their sources in our
suburbs as they flow towards the bay.
If the amount of contamination in the bay
were to rise – even slightly – our beautiful
Port Phillip Bay could change from striking
blue to bright green over the next century.
In many ways the problem is very small …
tiny pieces of plastic, called microplastics,
that make their way from stray rubbish and
commercial activity into rivers and eventually
onto our beaches and into our aquatic
ecosystems.
At weekends, equipped with a lab in a
bucket, the boys are collecting samples in
the field to answer their questions. Their
findings will allow them to take a peek at
Melbourne’s pollution scorecard. These
will be submitted to the WATERisLIFE
conference in June hosted by St Stephen’s
Episcopal School in Miami, USA. Looking
further ahead, the boys will be key
participants in the very first WATERisLIFE
conference to be hosted in the southern
hemisphere, right here at Scotch.
WATERisLIFE enables students to
collaborate globally to achieve the aims of
the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals, and ensure that clean, healthy water
is available everywhere for people and the
environment.
SIMON GOODING – CHEMISTRY TEACHER
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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