Internal Assessment Overview: In geography, traditionally plan, perform, and collect fieldwork together HOWEVER EVERYONE WILL WRITE THEIR OWN REPORT! Worth 20% of your total grade, marked by Ms. S. and then audited externally (selected few chosen and regraded by examiners). Rough Draft Due September 11th, Final Copy due September 25th 2015 (one month and half after return to school).

IA Overview: Geography 2500 words maximum (get as close as possible) Neat and well structured, with sub-headings (not included in word count) Front page, contents page, numbered pages Referenced in MLA format Includes maps (hand drawn), pictures, tables and graphs in the main body of the essay (as well as your appendix materials)

Word Count Overview Section A: introduction 300 words Section B: methods of investigation 300 words Section C/D: information collection and written analysis 1350 words Section E: Conclusion 200 words Section F: Evaluation 300 words

Not included: Title page Acknowledgments Contents page Titles and subtitles References Footnotes—up to a maximum of 15 words each Map legends and/or keys Labels—of 10 words or less Tables—of statistical or numerical data, or categories, classes or group names Calculations Appendices—containing only raw data and/or calculations

Our Topic; Ocean Plastic Estimated over 5 trillion plastic pieces in the ocean Estimates range between 700 000 000 - 250 000 tonnes Most plastic found in regions of one of the 5 gyres as a result of wind and wave action ‘corralling’ plastic floats in the center of the energy (GPGP) Plastic is sorted into 2 categories - micro and macro plastic – micro being smaller than 5mm in diameter Micro plastic particles the result of fragmentation of larger items OR runoff from cosmetic/synthetic clothing

Figure 2. Model results for global count density in four size classes. Eriksen M, Lebreton LCM, Carson HS, Thiel M, Moore CJ, et al. (2014) Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. PLoS ONE 9(12): e111913. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913 http://127.0.0.1:8081/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0111913

Micro and Macro Plastics in Gyres Grand Bahama is uniquely positioned on southwest of the North Atlantic Gyre, right at the start of the Gulf Stream Current (A), where currents (and upwelling from ocean trench) should be ‘pushing’ plastic towards the middle of the North Atlantic Gyre.

5 Gyres Project (www.5gyres.org) “Citizen Science Research” Plastic Beach Vertical trawling Manta Trawling Plastic Ocean Report

To what extent are the beaches of _______ and ________ polluted by ocean plastic?

Possible Hypothesis: We will find more plastic debris than any other debris on the beach The beach with regular the clean-up crews will be more heavily polluted than the beach without clean up crews We will find more macro plastic than micro plastic (or vice versa) We will find more plastic on the south side of island than the north We will find more plastic on west end of the island than the east Our beaches will be more or less polluted than other beaches (beaches in San Fransisco or the USA) The beach with more ocean plastic will have lower environmental quality

Investigations: Your Appendices (Thank You 5 Gyres!!!) Your Task: - Look over the transect materials to get an idea of how the transects will occur next week. - Look at your three hypothesis: how will you prove or disprove each one? These are your methods. - Look at your methods; how will you interpret the results after you gather the data? Do you know of any statistical calculations?