Component 1:

Task 1:  Prepare a 200- to 300-word history about the NCT technical application your team has selected to solve a local or national problem.

Water pollution goes back centuries to ancient Rome times. Human waste ran into rivers and after a time, the waters became badly polluted. These polluted waters helped cause many disease outbreaks, killing thousands of people. Awareness of the consequences of dumping pollutants in the water is fairly new to America. People didn't really care what went into the water, they were just worried about getting rid of their waste. It wasn't until the novel Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, was written in 1962 and the Cuyahoga River fires of 1969 did the government finally do studies on the water pollution. What they found was not good and it was causing many deaths. In 1972, the government passed the Clean Water Act to regulate the release of pollutants into navigable water. Even though this law is in place, pollutants are still finding its way into rivers and streams. Which in turn, flow into lakes and oceans. Which causes problems for animals that don't know what is going on with the water.

We set out to solve this problem for campers, mainly. So that they can be sure that the water they are drinking or cooking with is clean and safe.

Task 2:  Cite three detailed examples of research done in the past 3 to 5 years which focused on the topic your team has selected.

• August, 2007: Cornell University professor, David Primentel with a group of graduate students examined data from many published papers. They concluded that water, air, and soil pollution has caused 40% of the world's deaths. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug07/moreDiseases.sl.html

• A group of researchers led by professor Nikhil Koratkar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered a way to use low-voltage electricity to control the water flow through carbon nanotubes. This could greatly help turning salt water into pure water. Funded by the National Science Foundation.  http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=1935 

Task 3:  Based on the research your team has done, explain how the NCT application chosen has advanced scientific knowledge.

Environmental Qualities has advanced scientific knowledge because of the scientific processes that are included in the environmental qualities category. One of these processes is the water cycle, which consists of the evaporation, condensation and precipitation of water which while it's evaporating it leaves behind impurities that it had. This is the main piece of advanced scientific knowledge that went into our project becuase the evaporationand condensation of water is how we chose to solve our dilemma of getting pure clean drinking or cooking water for camping use.