Homemade Organic Dog Treats - Sophia A. and Elliot C.

          At first, we didn't know what to make for our Maker Project. We originally wanted to make a candy machine, but we found out we couldn't do that because it didn’t help the earth in any way. Then we decided to move on to a dog feeder because we know how lazy people are when it comes to feeding their dogs, but we found out that we couldn’t do that either. We finally made up our minds and decided to make healthy organic dog treats. We wanted to make sure that dogs had the healthiest option for their treats. Some dog treats are bad for dogs and have chemicals that can harm them, but our dog treats are fully organic and won't harm the animals. Something challenging was that we would find recipes but then see that they weren't very healthy, so we had to keep searching.     
           We planned a day where we would bake our first batch of dog treats. We baked our first batch on Saturday at Elliot's house. They were a success! My dog ate three cookies. We felt successful and accomplished. We had a little trouble because Elliot was sick, so Sophia made the dough on Tuesday without Elliot, then Elliot came back on Thursday and we baked the treats. The next day it was already the Maker Faire! That morning we had two periods to finish up, in that time we made our glaze and glazed one batch of treats. We made two batches of dog treats. We made Cranberry Coconut dog treats and Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog treats. We used Sun butter because of the allergy of someone at our school. 
          Something we learned is that, sometimes you have to edit the recipe to make them better. For the first batch of dog treats, we added 1 extra egg, 1 tbsp more almond flour, 1 tbsp more coconut flour, and 1 tbsp more coconut oil. Something else that we learned is that not all things turn out how you want them to, for example the Peanut butter Pumpkin dog treats didn't taste like we wanted them to, even though the dogs liked them.
          Even though the dog treats were a huge success and even people liked eating them, we would make them better by making them even more healthy. We could not use bacon grease next time because it has fat, we would maybe eliminate or use less peanut butter. Our project had a overall cost of $30. If you are thinking of making this make sure to follow your instincts, example: not following the whole recipe exactly. We thought that this project was really fun and enjoyed working together.

Recipes:
https://thelovelylife.org/2019/02/04/cranberry-hearts/
https://pinchofyum.com/homemade-dog-treats

aquaponic prototype project

Aquaponic project

For our project we decided to make a prototype of an aquaponic system. Our aquaponic was made out of reusable materials, with the exception of an air pump. We used an old tank for the fish tank, plastic cups to hold the plants, and used clay pebbles. We did not have any fish, because we didn’t have enough time to make a stable environment for them. In our fish tank we grew basil, mint, and rosemary. Our goal for the Aquaponic project was to show that there are sustainable substitutes for fertilizer, and non eco-friendly farming. Our inspiration came from Ms. Hill. At the beginning of our project, we were stuck without an idea, but we knew we wanted to make something with plants and animals. Ms. Hill looked up different projects and we chose to do an aquaponic in the end.

Our biggest challenges were time, money, and overall planning. We didn’t have enough time to make sure that fish could live in the environment, and to make sure the plants would grow. We also had financial problems getting the fish and the plants (it would cost around 30$). Also, at the beginning of our project, we didn’t have an idea at all of what we were going to do. Thankfully, we got ourselves together in time. On the 3rd day, we eventually got to work. There was no more time to waste.

We learned the science in the system: In an aquaponic system the fish waste creates two main things nitrates and ammonia. Nitrates are necessary for plant and are a great fertilizer. Ammonia on the other hand is toxic to plants and will affect their growth. A good and stable aquaponic should have lots of healthy bacteria, including nitrifying bacteria. Nitrifying bacteria will transmute the ammonia into nitrates creating a healthy ecosystem for the plants, and fish. There are some factors you need to watch out for when making an aquaponic like ph levels. Plants and fish need different ph levels so you need to have a ph level close to 7; You need to make sure there is enough oxygen in the water; and you need to check to see if the things you put on the plants affect the fish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PVdQ3-7UIs