Create Cleaner Water

Consider This

For this challenge, you will explore ways to improve our water quality and learn about the factors that affect stream health. As we build roads, parking lots, and buildings, more and more of our natural environment is disappearing. As a result, when it rains, water flows across the concrete or asphalt instead of being absorbed by the soil – this is called Stormwater Runoff. As this excess water flows, it picks up and carries contaminants, soil, and trash. If untreated, these contaminants can infiltrate groundwater and concentrate in streams and rivers, ultimately being carried through the watershed and into the ocean. What could you invent or innovate to help reduce water/stream pollution? Are there clever ways to reuse plastics, methods to reduce the use of fertilizers, or something to keep polluted runoff from getting into streams? Join us as we team up with Riverbend Environmental Education Center and the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit to explore stream health, drinking water, macroinvertebrates, and watersheds.

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Video Transcript:
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‍Hey Matt!
Hey! What’s up?
Just chilling here at Flux, thinking about what our next STEAM challenge could be.
What about you?
I was actually just on vacation—at the beach.
Nice! How was it?
It was great, but also kind of gross. There was a lot of trash washing up on the shore—plastic bottles, bags, even a band-aid.
Ew, band-aids in the ocean are the worst.
Right? It made me wonder—how bad is ocean pollution, really?
Let’s look it up.

(A bit later…)
Okay, wow. I found some stuff.
Me too—it’s wild. Ocean pollution, or marine pollution, is mainly caused by trash and chemicals from land.
Yeah, and it says 80% of that trash comes from land—blown or washed into the ocean.
It hurts sea animals, the environment, and even the global economy.
Most of the trash is plastic—like bottles, bags, and straws.
Fish and animals get tangled or eat it by mistake, thinking it’s food.
There are also microplastics—tiny pieces of plastic floating around that animals eat without even knowing it. Some of it sinks too, so there's even more below the surface.
That’s awful.

So... what can we do about it?
Let’s make this our next Flux Challenge!
Ooh, good idea—let’s invent something to clean up the ocean!

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Brainstorm Time:

• Dolphins trained to collect trash? Maybe not practical.
• Volunteers cleaning beaches every weekend? A solid idea.
• Boats with nets to collect trash? Could work.
• Robots that identify and collect trash underwater? Cool and futuristic!
• Empty the ocean, clean it, then refill it? Okay, not happening—but no bad ideas in brainstorming, right?

Let’s leave it up to YOU!

For this Flux STEAM Challenge, your mission is to:
- Come up with a creative idea to help clean the ocean
- Make a prototype—it can be made of cardboard, LEGOs, recyclables, anything
- You don’t need to build a real working version—just show the idea clearly
- Use the design thinking process to guide you

There’s a great resource at sharpen.design to help you with brainstorming and creating a prototype. Teachers, there’s even a guide for you too!

And don’t forget:
- Share your invention on social media
- Tag Flux and use #Flux2Steam4
We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Let’s clean up the ocean—together!

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