Build a Better Box Design Contest Results

The deadline for entries was June 1, 2020.

Sea turtles are endangered species; they need people’s help.
We put the eggs in Styrofoam boxes to protect them from poachers, animals and waves. But the boxes never biodegrade! In 2020, with our partners Sea of Change Foundation, we hosted a design contest to Build a Better Box for Sea Turtles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOaSsLsmpCo

We received design ideas from people of all ages from all over the world. Watch this video to see the winners!

Methods

The Science Exchange Interns, Cora and Ellery, and Director Katherine built the 5 contestant boxes that the judges previously scored highest from Round 1. The coconut fiber box was taken out because it would not stay together. The 4 buildable boxes were tested in the field against the control boxes – 3 Styrofoam boxes. Out of curiosity we also tested 3 paint buckets with holes (commonly used in Mexico), a rice bag or “costal” (commonly used in Central America), and a wooden fruit crate with palm frond husk lining (our idea).

The guidelines for the design contest in the video found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOaSsLsmpCo were used in field testing.

Following the San Pancho camp practices, 23 kg of moistened sand was added to each box with thermometer in the middle.

All 14 boxes were placed in the nylon lined box nursery tent for 45 days, the average incubation period for olive ridley sea turtles that nest here.

For sand moisture testing we periodically took sand samples from each box and weighed them before and after cooking off all the water for 24 hours.

At the end of 45 days the raw data from building and testing were graphed from high to low. Visually inspecting the natural breaks in the data we assigned scores for each “group” of results – from 0 (bad) to 5 (excellent).

Results

The scores were weighted and summed for an overall score.

Entry	Overall score
Styrofoam	100
Styrofoam wet holes in lid*	96
Styrofoam wet holes in lid	96
Rice bag costal plain	80
Entry 2 – Sphere of Cuamecate (large)	77
Entry 2 – Sphere of Cuamecate med	77
Entry 8. Paper mache with glue	76
Fruit crate with palm fiber	72
Entry 6 Plywood Wooden Box with holes and cloth inside for insulation- brackets	72
Entry 8. Paper mache with glue	68
bucket with costal holes on bottom and lid and top	51.5
bucket costal on bottom holes on bottom and lid and top	51.5
Entry 5. Plywood box with one glass wall	47
Entry 6 Plywood Wooden Box with holes and cloth inside for insulation- nails and sealant	42

No box outperformed the Styrofoam boxes according to the guidelines. However, the entry 2 – Sphere of Cuamecate outperformed the other 3 entries.

Entry 2 – Sphere of Cuamecate; Entry 6 Plywood Wooden Box with cloth inside

Entry 8. Paper mache with glue; Entry 5. Plywood box with one glass wall

When averaged, all contestant boxes had significantly higher hourly temperatures than the Styrofoam boxes (individual T tests p<.05), However, the Styrofoam lost the most sand moisture per day.

Next round of field testing

A combination of several contest entries may be tested in the next round. For example, the palm frond husks could be attached inside the sphere with the natural glue from the paper mache entries (vinegar, water, and flour) and even cinnamon can be added as a natural insect repellent (suggested by a contestant). In that case the lining might need additional glue/cinnamon after each cleaning with water. The designers suggested a half coconut shell on the top can be added to deter predators. We suggest creating 30 or more replicates in the next round to for a more robust study of temperature and moisture. A food dehydrator was suggested as a better method of testing sand moisture loss per day in this humid region.

If you have questions please write to science_exchange@hotmail.com