Research/Project Results

Methodology

           Wind speed, temperature, and humidity were measured every 30 minutes.  Wind speed was determined using a  homemade anemometer. This was a protractor with a ping-pong ball hanging from a string attached to its center. If there was any wind, the ping-pong ball would move and the string would move.  Dan is checking a value in the photograph below, which he then recorded. As seen in Table 1 on the Abiotic Data page, the angle was 90 degrees the whole time, meaning there was no wind.            

            Temperature was measured using a digital thermometer.  These results are shown in Observation Table 2 on the Abiotic Data page.  

             Humidity was measured using two different devices.   The first was clled a sling psychrometer (see the Stephen in the photograph below). It was swung at about 3 revolutions per second for 30 seconds and the relative humidity was calculated using a slide rule key. The second device used to measure humidity was the hygrometer, which consisted of two thermometers to determine air humidity. One had a wet wick at the bottom, and the other had no wick. The humidity was determined by taking a reading on both thermometers, finding the difference between the two, and using a special chart to see what the translated relative humidity percentage was. Both of these instruments were used to test accuracy. The differences were rather large, indicating one of the two were not a good testing device. Data was recorded in Table 3 on the Abiotic Data page.

Soil moisture was obtained by weighing fresh soil samples from 4 quadrats on our 10 x 10 m observation plot, heating them until dry, and then weighing them again. Table 4 on the Abiotic Data page shows the average percent moisture in each soil sample and the total average for the 4 samples.

            Air pollution readings were taken at our school, approximately 10 km away from Juanda Park . The amount of traffic in the two places is similar, so the readings may or may not accurate. Particulate air pollution was tested by placing adhesive strips, sticky side out on a box and letting it sit for 7 days. Results are discussed in the Observations section. Since Bandung has now entered dry season, we were unable to test for pollutants and acidity in the rain.

            The sunlight/shade ratio was obtained by measuring the amount of sunlight in an area, then subtracting that amount from the amount of shaded area. Results are discussed in the Abiotic Data section.