This year, we (CAMS GBLA) planned to take a different approach to making a change in our community. Initially, our plans were based on the engineering-based focus on creating a physical prototype of a BPA indicator, a different theme from our 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 projects. With the happenings of early 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic), we were unfortunately halted in our planned activities and events. However, this did not stop us from trying our best to accomplish our goal with the resources and materials we had given our situation. By communicating efficiently and holding meetings to organize our ideas about how to complete our mission virtually, we have accomplished bringing awareness in our community.
Our approach to this year's topic and project allowed us learn much more about the effects of marine plastic pollution and why is it so important. Although many people know about how damaging plastic pollution is, and have seen many articles or documentaries about this topic, the reality still has not changed. Plastic pollution in oceans still causes many issues today and we hoped that our project, which targets removing BPA from oceans and educating our community, would make even a small change. We were unable to carry out the physical experiments and tests we had planned for our BPA indicator due to social distancing, but we have held interactive and educational activities about marine plastic pollution for the youth in our community. We hope that even after the project ends, we would still continue to be able to bring changes and reduce plastic pollution!