Let's Make Clean Water!

  For Dr. Smirnova's class, we had to do a science experiment.  As I was looking for a project, I decided that I wanted to try and create a water filtration system using materials like dirt and gravel. Having clean water is something that I believe many people take advantage of.  Not many people have access to clean water, and water is essential to life.  My experiment uses materials that are accessible to people to make water filtering systems. 

The materials that were needed to conduct this experiment were dirty water, 3 water bottles, 3 empty cups. 3 coffee filters, rubber bands (or anything to fasten the coffee filter to the bottom of the bottle, gravel, and sand.







I created three water filtration systems, the first used only sand, the second used gravel, and the third used sand and gravel. All I did was cut the bottom of a water bottle off, put a coffee filter on the end, fill the bottle with whatever material I was using, pour the dirty water into the bottle, and let it drain into a labeled cup.

The water I got did not come out completely clear.  A future recommendation I have would be to add more than one coffee filter to the end of the bottle; however, my result was that the sand and gravel system did make the cleanest water.

For class, I created a virtual science fair project using Voicethread that you can watch.

Using systems similar to what I created for my project is being done.  The Permaculture Research Institute (2017) has been making water filtering systems in Central America where having drinking water that is safe to consume is a major issue. Luckily, this institute has created a system that uses clay, sawdust, and colloidal silver to filter dirty water. The materials that this institute uses helps to remove any dirt, parasites, bacteria, and any other harmful contaminants from the water. The filters created by this institute have been placed on the streets so people have access to clean water without having to buy a bottle of water.  Below is a picture of the system that the Permaculture Research Institute has created.

Clean water is essential and there are ways to provide clean water using accessible materials.