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Example Science
Fair Projects
Drawn from the
Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan
The
following list is based upon the set of recommendations in the Regional
Water Plan. We carefully do not
intend the list to be limiting or complete. Rather, we believe the list should be
used as a stimulus for students to think and invent their own
approaches to water-oriented issues/topics.
1. Do un-metered water users take
more (or less) conservation steps than do metered water users?
2. Do high or stepped water prices
drive people to take conservation measures?
3. Does drought influence people’s
conservation actions?
4. Most people don’t know about
available conservation rebate programs?
5. Which yard plants require more
water – per plant, or per square foot of ground?
6. How much lawn can be supported
by rooftop harvesting of water?
7. How quickly can initial costs
be recovered for switching to low flow appliances?
8. How can you decide when you’re
watering too much?
9. Raising more plants with less
water – what are the best ways?
10. How much water in the house can
be used more than once? What are
the ways?
11. Which sporting activities use the
most water per person served (football, hiking, golf, skiing, etc.)?
12. What affects how fast water
evaporates – plain, salty, open water, cloth covered, soaked soil, in
shade, algae laden, with floating objects, temperature, relative
humidity, etc.?
13. How can photo reconnaissance
images distinguish among kinds of land use, trees, alfalfa, grass,
tumbleweeds, etc. Which photo set is more accurate?
14. How fast can water flow in an
aquifer? What affects the rate –
kind of substance, slope, pressures?
15. Why how do river/stream flows
fluctuate – in both time and in distance along the river/stream.
16. Which water saving techniques are most effective relative to their cost.
17. How does actual water use compare
with allowed water use?
18. How consistent are various
available sources of data about water and water use? If inconsistent, what assumptions or
methods can cause the inconsistency?
How do results vary according to assumptions?
19. How does the nature of
forestation affect snow cover, runoff, and aquifer recharge?
20. What techniques (laws, publicity,
weather, etc.) have the most effect on residential uses of water?
21. How much fluctuation is there in
water supply, and/or how can we best take advantage of it (storms,
seasons, years, decades)?
22. How consistent are our rules and
policies about water use from one place to another?
23. Can a town government’s income
(taxes) and outgo (spending budgets) be compared to the town’s water
income and outgo? How do bank
accounts and reservoirs relate to the income/outgo?
24. How does water use relate to the
way land is used (farming, parks, industrial, apartments, retail,
suburbs, ranching, wilderness, bosque, etc.)?
25. What does it cost to measure
various water uses (utilities’, residence, lawns, farms, businesses,
etc.)?
26. How much water is lost in transit
(urban utilities, river flow, main ditches, on-farm ditches,
etc.)?
27. How much watering to plants
need? How to
we know when we have provided too much?
28. Which watering methods are most
efficient, and for which crops or plants? What are the obstacles?
29. How far do which crop products
travel to market? How does this
affect prices or costs?
30. What patterns of channels or
ditches are most efficient in delivering acequia
water to a collection of fields? What field shapes or geometries would
be optimal?
31. What impurities (quantity, type)
are found in outflows from septic tanks? How does this relate to outflows from
sewage treatment plants?
32. How does natural impurity content
of water relate to human caused impurities, from place to place, from
time to time? How does impurity
acceptability relate to the intended uses of water?
33. How precise and how accurate are
impurity measurement techniques?
How do these relate to costs?
34. Where does our water come
from? How can/should we ensure
that it stays of adequate quality?
35. How do various riparian or bosque “restoration” actions affect the water use
in a natural area?
36. What is the water cost of various
forms of species habitat (wetlands, grassland, cottonwood, salt cedar,
etc.).
37. What is the “natural” state of
New Mexico’s riparian areas?
What would be the costs,, benefits, and
side effects of restoring the areas to that state?
38. How do water evaporation rates
vary for locations across New Mexico (latitude, altitude, ground cover,
time of year, etc.)?
39. What happens to or in the space
left behind when we pump water out of the ground? How can we make good use of that
space?
40. What actions can help us deal
with the annual fluctuations of rainfall? Can we save water from wet years for
use in dry years? What
quantities would we need to handle?
41. Can we use a computer to describe
the effects on water flow downstream in response to inflows and uses
upstream?
42. How can we remove salts from
water? What are the energy costs
of each method? What are the dollar costs?
43. What are the costs of piping
water for long distances? How does
this compare with the costs of piping petroleum products? How does it compare with irrigation
and residential water billing?
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