For my capstone project I did a TED talk on ocean pollution. I chose to do a TED talk because I wanted to help people understand more about ocean pollution and to learn more about it from this project. I also wanted people to hear what I had to say about the environment. I wanted to get the word out there that marine animals are in danger.  After all my work, what I enjoyed most about my final project was finishing it because of all the websites I went on, the blog posts, the templates and research slides I was just glad to finish.  During my Ted talk some of the challenges I faced were writer’s block and other complications. When I was close to the end of my project I got really nervous and because I was so nervous I felt like I messed up and I did it wrong even though I knew I didn’t. I’m looking forward to sharing my capstone presentation with people because then I will know I did it all right and I should be proud of myself because I finally finished.

For my capstone interview I interviewed Karen Mintzer. Her company is Mintzer Mauch. Karen is an environmental attorney, and the former Regional Counsel for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.  I interviewed her because she is an environmental lawyer and worked for the state environmental agency that works to prevent water and ocean pollution.  She knows a lot about ocean pollution and will prevent it in the future. The process for my interview was to make a list of people I could interview and I chose Karen because she has a lot of experience in this topic. I emailed her my questions and we set up our zoom for Friday, May 22. I asked her these ten questions:

1. Can you tell me about the work you do and how it relates to protecting water bodies and marine life?
2. What is the biggest cause of pollution in New York’s water bodies?
3. How does pollution in New York’s rivers and wetlands impact ocean pollution?
4. How does garbage from New York City end up in the ocean?
5. How is pollution mainly affecting marine life?
6. Which types of pollution in the oceans and water bodies are the biggest issues that are being worked on by New York state? 

7.What is New York state doing to protect the oceans and other water bodies that feed into the ocean?

8.What programs does DEC have to protect marine life around New York

9. What has the DEC done to protect marine aniamls?
10. What federal laws are in place to protect our oceans and marine life?

The most interesting thing I learned as a result of the interview was learning about the state environmental agency and the programs they have to protect the ocean. During the Interview process one of the most challenging things was writing my questions. 

My topic for the capstone project is ocean pollution. My main inquiry question for this issue is  “What are the negative impacts of ocean pollution and how is the United States addressing this problem?” I chose this topic out of all other pollution issues because I want the sea animals to be safe, I want clean oceans to swim in, and cleaner drinking water. What was helpful in choosing this topic is how much I care about the ocean and don’t want it to be damaged. The ocean is also very important and fun for many other things like boating, fishing, swimming, etc. if the ocean isn’t saved then many people won’t have these things. It was also challenging to pick this topic because there are so many other big pollution problems like air pollution, dirt pollution, all the garbage everywhere but the ocean just stood out to me more. While researching and writing doing all these different things. I learned more things about myself as a learner. For example I used to never want to research but starting this project I love all the research and keep on finding new things.