Erik plays Little League baseball, as well as piano and trumpet. He is a fossil and mineral collector who has dug for dinosaur bones in Montana. In the future, Erik would enjoy being a mechanical engineer because, he says, "my mind keeps on coming up with new ideas."
Erik spends a lot of time observing the stream behind his house, which supports frogs, salamanders, and other wildlife. He lives in central New York, which he learned has acid rain with a pH of 4.5 on average. He investigated whether rainfall events would have a measurable effect on the acidity of the stream. Erik hypothesized that there would be a direct correlation between the stream's pH and its volume, which increases after a rain.
Erik measured the depth of the streambed at one-foot intervals across the stream. Over the next 12 weeks, he used depth data and velocity of the stream to calculate water volume each day. He also measured the stream's pH and kept track of any daily rainfall. Erik found a correlation between stream depth and pH. During most rain events, the stream pH fell from 6.5 to 4.5 or 5.0. Ongoing acidity at this level could endanger the wildlife living in the stream, he concluded.
