Dunlap COOKIE MONSTERS

Research Project1

Mouse Fun

Making Corn Chips Safer2

Food ,Ingredients ,and Contamination

• Food: Corn Chips• Main ingredients:

o Cornmealo Watero Salto Vegetable Oil

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Researched & Led the discussions

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Food ,Ingredients ,and Contamination

• Team equally split up ingredients to investigate

• Discussed data to decide on contamination• Contamination in cornmeal: mice in silos• Team on field trip to local farm• Mice were found in corn drier

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Current - Cornmeal Processing•Mechanical Methods like sifting

– To separate out foreign objects, such as mice

•Magnets– Used to filter out metal objects

•Chemicals– Used to neutralize mice contaminations– Fungicides, Rodenticides, Veterinary Pharmaceuticals, Solvents, and

Fillers

Diseases Caused by Mice•Hantavirus Syndrome – mice urine contamination•Salmonellosis – mice germs contamination•Tularemia - mice saliva contamination

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Pharmaceuticals

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Non- Eco- FriendlyHarmful to Humans

FungicidesRodenticides

Current Chemicals UsedImpact on Humans

Catch trapsEach $ 13#10 per silo

Glue BoardEach box $ 4#5 boxes per silo

UltrasonicEach $ 15#3per silo

Year aroundTotal cost –~ $200

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Innovative SolutionYear Around Protection

Corn in SiloWinter

Fall

Summer

Spring

Catch Traps

Ultrasonic

GlueboardsAverage silo can hold 40,000 bushels of corn. Average market value is $168000. Our year round cost is only .15% of this.

Cost per bushel= $0.006If the average bushel market valueincreases by even 1 cent, giving good profit margin

• Presented to three farmers

• They liked the idea of seasonal control strategy

• They suggested us to breakdown how many of these devices need to be used per storage bin

• They also enquired about the total cost of implementing our solution

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Bibliography• www.fda.gov - Regulations on food processing• www.cdc.gov - General disease and human info• www.idph.state.il.us - Health and disease • www.orkin.com - Mice and chemicals• www.santharia.com - Common chemicals and traps

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INTERNET

PRINTED• Wall Street Journal - Market prices

EXPERTS• Local Farmers - Corn storage, mice control

• Physician - Human health & contaminations

• High school Students - Past FLL experience

HANDS ONTrip to Corn Field

& Storage Silos

SCRIPTS

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Deepti & Yashodha Script

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D: I am Deepti, acting as a mice

Y: I am Yashodha, acting as another mice

D: (eating chips from a bag off floor) yum . . . This is sooooo good

Y: (running in and gently pushes bag out of way) hay what d’you think? You’re doing?

D: I’m eating

Y: Do you know how many chemicals there are in that?

D: Huh?

Y: There might be some of uncle Bob’s hair in that too!

D: (sick face) Eeeew (choking pretend)

Y: Our chosen research problem is mice contamination in corn and cornmeal. Toxic chemicals are added to neutralize mice contamination.

D: Our innovative solution is using off the shelf tools around the year to minimize / decrease mice contaminations in corn silos.

Next is Zach will be talking about our subject of research

Zach’s ScriptMy name is Zach•The food that we decided to investigate is corn chips.•The 4 main ingredients in corn chips are:

– Vegetable oil– Cornmeal– Salt– Water

•Our team split up the ingredients for each member to research•After discussing the data, we decided our contamination•The contamination that we chose was mice in silos that contaminate cornmeal•Next Chait will speak about current solutions for this contamination

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Chait’s Script

My name is Chaitanya

Currently, processing factories use mechanical methods, like sifting to separate out foreign objects such as metal and mice out of corn.

After these steps, toxic man made chemicals are added in the cornmeal processing to neutralize mice contaminants.

Next Manus will speak about the chemicals and its effects on humans

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Manus’ Script

My name is ManusThese chemicals like fungicides, rodenticides and pharmaceuticals are artificially chemicals. These artificial toxic chemicals are in general not eco friendly and harmful to our bodies in the longer span of life. When human consume these chemicals in low level they may not harm, but if consumed at high level will be harmful.

If corn chips don’t contain these chemicals, chips will become more eco friendly and healthier for humans.

Next Santosh and John will be speaking about our innovative solution

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Jon and Santosh’s ScriptMy name is Jon And I am Santosh.Santosh: Our innovative solution is using existing tools and traps through out the year. We Have multiple ways to get rid of mice. Our first tool is an ultrasonic device. These cost $15 a piece. Jon: (hold up box) these send high frequency sound waves through the ground or air, but do not harm humans or mice, they only drive mice away.Santosh: Next, our glueboards which cost $4 per box.Jon: These are plastic rectangles with glue on topSantosh: Finally, we have catch traps which are $13.Jon: These are metal boxes where the mouse walks in and gets trapped.Santosh: First is spring, which is the perfect time to catch the mice. You can use all traps in the spring. Next is summer, where there are fewer mice. We can only use Catch traps because of the weather. You cannot use ultrasonic because it needs wet weather for the waves to travel. Also, you cannot use glueboards because they will gain lots of dust. Same in the fall, with cornhusk. The Ultrasonic will not work because of the noise. In the winter, you can only use ultrasonic because of the snow. This will mess up glueboards and catch traps will rust. This is our plan. Next, Abhinu will speak about local farmers’ comments and feedback.

Abhinu Script

As you saw our research was about how to reduce mice contamination in corn stored in the grain bins

We studied the use of chemicals as current methods to control it and its side effects on humans

Our innovative solution is to use combination of various economical devices which are also humane.

Our team believes this solution is an easy and effective way to make corn chips more natural food

Cookie mosnters also shared our project with three local farmers. Based on our solution, one of the farmers has placed mice traps around a silo, and will let us know how it turns out.

Thank you for your time

Cookie monsters …. Num … num … num17

Caterpillar: Confidential Green

Food Factor / Project Planning

Identify Real World ProblemIn Food Journey

Identify Food

Develop Innovative Practical Scientific Solution

Ingredient Food Journey‘tree’

IngredientJourney

Contamination in the Journey?

Choose A Contamination

Present our solution @

Tournament

Field Trip08 Oct

12 Oct

05 Oct28 Sept21 Sept

14 Oct14 Oct

26 Oct

04 Nov

07Dec

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