IRS 2012
INTERSCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Instruction to Participants:
Discuss with your mentor the planning and implementation issues of your project before completing this form.
Submit the completed form to your mentor, teacher-advisor, and School-coordinator by 21 Sept 2012.
STUDENT NAME (S): Marcus Chan, Gavin Ong, Reuben Ang & Ng Yun Shu
SCHOOL/TEAM
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, SINGAPORE
MENTOR
Mr Ng Guo Hui
PROGRAMME/INSTITUTION
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROPOSAL
TITLE OF PROJECT
How does the different seasons/weather in South-East Asia affect the air pollution in Singapore?
CATEGORY
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Botany
Microbiology
Zoology
Environmental Science *
Medicine & Health
DNA Science
Space Science
Computer Science
Physics
Mathematics
Engineering: (Specify which area of engineering)
Others:
PURPOSE OF RESEARCH
(a) For scientific investigations
Hypothesis / Engineering Goals: Our hypothesis is that the amount of air pollution will increase as human activities increase and more people drive their own vehicles. We chose this as both will emit harmful gases like Sulphur Dioxide and Carbon monoxide which will harm the environment and cause the amount of air pollution to increase. Also we believe that the air pollution is affected by the seasons or weather in South-East Asia and by conducting this research or goal is to find out how to activities and seasons in South-East Asia correlate directly or indirectly to whether air pollution is minimal or present in huge amounts.
Independent variable: The independent variable is the weather where we collect our results as we are trying to find out if the weather affects the air pollution. In other words, the weather that is occurring currently in the certain area we are trying to measure, will bring or remove certain amounts of pollution which will result indirectly or directly the amount of air pollution present in Singapore, thus the weather is an independent variable.
Dependent variable: The dependent variable is the amount of air pollution as it depends on the weather in which we are collecting our results from. This is affected either indirectly from the weather which may blow pollution in from various parts of South-East Asia where alot of air pollution is present, it may also affect the air pollution in Singapore indirectly by causing certain parts of South-East Asia to become very dry and thus cause forest fires which may be blown to Singapore. Thus, when weather is different, the amount of air pollution in Singapore is drastically different, thus this is the dependent variable.
Constants: The constants is the place(South-East Asia) where we collect our results as we will get different results if we conduct the experiment and collect our results somewhere else like Europe for example. Also, the methods of measuring the air pollution, like PSI Index or the units of measurements which is micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) or parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb). (AIR-EIA, .n.d.). Also the location where we measure the air pollution which is Singapore, will not change.
RELEVANCY OF RESEARCH
1. Why is your research important?
-To find out the amount of air pollution in Singapore and the thing that causes it, so that we can reduce the air pollution causing factor and decrease air pollution in Singapore. Most importantly, this involves the health of the public, thus if we can identify the cause(s) of the air pollution in Singapore, by decreasing it, the overall health of the public will be better, which will result in a healthier Singapore.
2. How does it contribute to existing body of knowledge?
- Although the NEA agency already posts the PSI Index daily and many articles about the seasons and weather in South-East Asia and even activities that result in more pollutants in the air, however not many or no connections have been made between the two, thus by doing this research, we will be able to show the correlation between the two and thus the experts will be able to make changes to the current society which will then cause an improvement in the air pollution throughout Singapore and the world.
3. How does your research contribute to/impact the society or community?
-It teaches the society/ community more about the causes of air pollution and how we can think up of more ways to stop polluting the air further. Also by showing this research, the people who are indirectly causing this air pollution in Singapore, will be able to understand how they impact the world negatively and put a stop to it. Also, the government will be able to put measures to stop certain causes which may somewhat improve the air quality. Most importantly, we will be able to decrease the amount of air related diseases by improving the air quality in Singapore.
SCOPE OF RESEARCH
The "scope" section is where you list what you are doing. The "bounds" section is where you set the boundaries and you list some thing explicitly that you are not doing because they are outside the bounds of the project.
Scope: -To find out the amount of air pollution in Singapore that is caused by the weather in South-East Asia, to find out ways to help reduce air pollution, to help the society/ community learn more about air pollution and think of more better ways to help stop it.
Bound: -We will only be taking information about air pollution from South-East Asia, and not from anywhere else. We will also not be taking information about land pollution, water pollution etc as it is not related to our topic.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. What are the current research available/ you have come across?
-PSI index which states the amount of air pollution in Singapore in the previous years which shows us if it increased or decreased and how severe or mild the air pollution was. Also many articles about the weather and seasons in South-East Asia and even activities that happen in South-East Asia are already published/are on the web.
2. Summarise the research articles that you have encountered which may be useful to your research.
-In general, the causes of air pollution in Singapore is because of Sulphur Dioxide emissions in Singapore from refineries, power stations, other industries and shipping etc. It is also caused by Carbon Monoxide which is emitted by motorcycles and is harmful to the environment which contributes mainly to the air pollution in Singapore.
METHODOLOGY
1. Procedures
How are you going to gather data?
We will gather data via many sources. However most of them will be from the Internet as the NEA Agency uploads the PSI Index and quality of air daily. However, articles on the newspaper may also occur ever so frequently. We should be able to find previous years’ PSI Indexes and the current PSI Index (NEA, 2012). and the air quality as it has been posted up on the NEA website already. Once we have done so, we will correlate the PSI levels and air quality to the seasons and weather that is occurring currently in South-East Asia and also the human activity that is occurring. This will allow us to accurately correlate the air pollution to the seasons and human activity in South-East Asia.
2. How are you going to collate data?
We will collate data via year. Thus for each year we will take the air pollution and PSI Indexes and compare them to the various seasons, weather and human activity which happens in that year. Then we will compile the data by year, for example in the year 2006, the PSI Indexes and air pollution will be coupled with the seasons in South-East Asia and it will form a table, to show how the amount of air pollution in Singapore is affected by the seasons or weather and human activity in South-East Asia.
3. How are you going to sift and sort data i.e. which data is important?
We will only take the data that happened in South-East Asia, and we will also take the PSI Indexes and air quality not the land pollution or water pollution. Also we will not take any data from Wikipedia and only reliable websites, we will compare them with other websites citing the same weather or seasons, if they are different, there may be a chance that it unreliable and we will have to look for more websites.
Data Analysis
1. How are you going to analyse the data?
We will analyse them by the year. By comparing the seasons, weather and human activity with the amount of air pollution in Singapore by year. This will allow us to see a trend between the independent variable which is seasons and weather in South-East Asia and the dependent variable which is amount of air pollution in Singapore. By doing so, we will be able to identify the cause of the air pollution and put a stop to it.
2. How are you going to present the data?
We will present it in a table, for each year we will show the relationship between the amount of air pollution in Singapore and the current seasons or weather in South-East Asia. Then by doing so, we will be able to identify the cause(s) of the air pollution in Singapore.
Bibliography
National Environment Agency.(September 27, 2012). In Ambient Air Quality. Retrieved September 27, 2012 from www.nea.gov.sg/psi/.
AIR-EIA.(1995-2012). In Air pollution and environmental impact assessment: the multimedia information source. Retrieved September 27, 2012 from www.ess.co.at/AIR-EIA/units.html
RISK ASSESSMENT
1. List/identify the hazardous chemicals, activities, or devices that will be used
The information that we gather might be unreliable and might cause harm to people who takes the information seriously. This might be used for a large-scale project and might cause harm to the people involve.
2. Identify and assess the risks involved.
Scientific actions and conclusions might be made where safety might be concerned. For example, the scientists might use chemicals to counter the air pollutants. These air pollutants might be harmful to our body if not “countered” with the harmful air pollutants.
3. Describe the safety precautions and procedures that will be used to reduce the risks.
We can double-check the information by gathering information from other sources. This would allow us to make sure that that particular source is not fabricating the information for their advantage. The possibility of a few sources lying might be smaller.
4. Describe the disposal procedures that will be used (when applicable).
5. List the source(s) of safety information.
DESIRED OUTCOMES/SKILL ACCUSATION
ICT skills
Applied Learning skills
21st century skills
The Scientific Method
Inter-disciplinary Research
IRS 2012
DRAFT 1 INTERSCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Instruction to Participants:
Discuss with your mentor the planning and implementation issues of your project before completing this form.
Submit the completed form to your mentor, teacher-advisor, and School-coordinator by 21 Sept 2012.
STUDENT NAME (S): Marcus Chan, Gavin Ong, Reuben Ang & Ng Yun Shu
SCHOOL/TEAM
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, SINGAPORE
MENTOR
Mr Ng Guo Hui
PROGRAMME/INSTITUTION
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROPOSAL
TITLE OF PROJECT
How does the different seasons/weather in South-East Asia affect the air pollution in Singapore?
CATEGORY
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Botany
Microbiology
Zoology
Environmental Science *
Medicine & Health
DNA Science
Space Science
Computer Science
Physics
Mathematics
Engineering: (Specify which area of engineering)
Others:
PURPOSE OF RESEARCH
(a) For scientific investigations
Hypothesis / Engineering Goals: Our hypothesis is that the amount of air pollution will increase as human activities increase and more people drive their own vehicles. We chose this as both will emit harmful gases like Sulphur Dioxide and Carbon monoxide which will harm the environment and cause the amount of air pollution to increase. Also we believe that the air pollution is affected by the seasons or weather in South-East Asia and by conducting this research or goal is to find out how to activities and seasons in South-East Asia correlate directly or indirectly to whether air pollution is minimal or present in huge amounts.
Independent variable: The independent variable is the weather where we collect our results as we are trying to find out if the weather affects the air pollution. In other words, the weather that is occurring currently in the certain area we are trying to measure, will bring or remove certain amounts of pollution which will result indirectly or directly the amount of air pollution present in Singapore, thus the weather is an independent variable.
Dependent variable: The dependent variable is the amount of air pollution as it depends on the weather in which we are collecting our results from. This is affected either indirectly from the weather which may blow pollution in from various parts of South-East Asia where alot of air pollution is present, it may also affect the air pollution in Singapore indirectly by causing certain parts of South-East Asia to become very dry and thus cause forest fires which may be blown to Singapore. Thus, when weather is different, the amount of air pollution in Singapore is drastically different, thus this is the dependent variable.
Constants: The constants is the place(South-East Asia) where we collect our results as we will get different results if we conduct the experiment and collect our results somewhere else like Europe for example. Also, the methods of measuring the air pollution, like PSI Index or the units of measurements which is micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) or parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb). (AIR-EIA, .n.d.). Also the location where we measure the air pollution which is Singapore, will not change.
RELEVANCY OF RESEARCH
1. Why is your research important?
-To find out the amount of air pollution in Singapore and the thing that causes it, so that we can reduce the air pollution causing factor and decrease air pollution in Singapore. Most importantly, this involves the health of the public, thus if we can identify the cause(s) of the air pollution in Singapore, by decreasing it, the overall health of the public will be better, which will result in a healthier Singapore.
2. How does it contribute to existing body of knowledge?
- Although the NEA agency already posts the PSI Index daily and many articles about the seasons and weather in South-East Asia and even activities that result in more pollutants in the air, however not many or no connections have been made between the two, thus by doing this research, we will be able to show the correlation between the two and thus the experts will be able to make changes to the current society which will then cause an improvement in the air pollution throughout Singapore and the world.
3. How does your research contribute to/impact the society or community?
-It teaches the society/ community more about the causes of air pollution and how we can think up of more ways to stop polluting the air further. Also by showing this research, the people who are indirectly causing this air pollution in Singapore, will be able to understand how they impact the world negatively and put a stop to it. Also, the government will be able to put measures to stop certain causes which may somewhat improve the air quality. Most importantly, we will be able to decrease the amount of air related diseases by improving the air quality in Singapore.
SCOPE OF RESEARCH
The "scope" section is where you list what you are doing. The "bounds" section is where you set the boundaries and you list some thing explicitly that you are not doing because they are outside the bounds of the project.
Scope: -To find out the amount of air pollution in Singapore that is caused by the weather in South-East Asia, to find out ways to help reduce air pollution, to help the society/ community learn more about air pollution and think of more better ways to help stop it.
Bound: -We will only be taking information about air pollution from South-East Asia, and not from anywhere else. We will also not be taking information about land pollution, water pollution etc as it is not related to our topic.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. What are the current research available/ you have come across?
-PSI index which states the amount of air pollution in Singapore in the previous years which shows us if it increased or decreased and how severe or mild the air pollution was. Also many articles about the weather and seasons in South-East Asia and even activities that happen in South-East Asia are already published/are on the web.
2. Summarise the research articles that you have encountered which may be useful to your research.
-In general, the causes of air pollution in Singapore is because of Sulphur Dioxide emissions in Singapore from refineries, power stations, other industries and shipping etc. It is also caused by Carbon Monoxide which is emitted by motorcycles and is harmful to the environment which contributes mainly to the air pollution in Singapore.
METHODOLOGY
1. Procedures
How are you going to gather data?
We will gather data via many sources. However most of them will be from the Internet as the NEA Agency uploads the PSI Index and quality of air daily. However, articles on the newspaper may also occur ever so frequently. We should be able to find previous years’ PSI Indexes and the current PSI Index (NEA, 2012). and the air quality as it has been posted up on the NEA website already. Once we have done so, we will correlate the PSI levels and air quality to the seasons and weather that is occurring currently in South-East Asia and also the human activity that is occurring. This will allow us to accurately correlate the air pollution to the seasons and human activity in South-East Asia.
2. How are you going to collate data?
We will collate data via year. Thus for each year we will take the air pollution and PSI Indexes and compare them to the various seasons, weather and human activity which happens in that year. Then we will compile the data by year, for example in the year 2006, the PSI Indexes and air pollution will be coupled with the seasons in South-East Asia and it will form a table, to show how the amount of air pollution in Singapore is affected by the seasons or weather and human activity in South-East Asia.
3. How are you going to sift and sort data i.e. which data is important?
We will only take the data that happened in South-East Asia, and we will also take the PSI Indexes and air quality not the land pollution or water pollution. Also we will not take any data from Wikipedia and only reliable websites, we will compare them with other websites citing the same weather or seasons, if they are different, there may be a chance that it unreliable and we will have to look for more websites.
Data Analysis
1. How are you going to analyse the data?
We will analyse them by the year. By comparing the seasons, weather and human activity with the amount of air pollution in Singapore by year. This will allow us to see a trend between the independent variable which is seasons and weather in South-East Asia and the dependent variable which is amount of air pollution in Singapore. By doing so, we will be able to identify the cause of the air pollution and put a stop to it.
2. How are you going to present the data?
We will present it in a table, for each year we will show the relationship between the amount of air pollution in Singapore and the current seasons or weather in South-East Asia. Then by doing so, we will be able to identify the cause(s) of the air pollution in Singapore.
Bibliography
National Environment Agency.(September 27, 2012). In Ambient Air Quality. Retrieved September 27, 2012 from www.nea.gov.sg/psi/.
AIR-EIA.(1995-2012). In Air pollution and environmental impact assessment: the multimedia information source. Retrieved September 27, 2012 from www.ess.co.at/AIR-EIA/units.html
RISK ASSESSMENT
1. List/identify the hazardous chemicals, activities, or devices that will be used
The information that we gather might be unreliable and might cause harm to people who takes the information seriously. This might be used for a large-scale project and might cause harm to the people involve.
2. Identify and assess the risks involved.
Scientific actions and conclusions might be made where safety might be concerned. For example, the scientists might use chemicals to counter the air pollutants. These air pollutants might be harmful to our body if not “countered” with the harmful air pollutants.
3. Describe the safety precautions and procedures that will be used to reduce the risks.
We can double-check the information by gathering information from other sources. This would allow us to make sure that that particular source is not fabricating the information for their advantage. The possibility of a few sources lying might be smaller.
4. Describe the disposal procedures that will be used (when applicable).
5. List the source(s) of safety information.
DESIRED OUTCOMES/SKILL ACCUSATION
ICT skills
Applied Learning skills
21st century skills
The Scientific Method
Inter-disciplinary Research
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