What is the best way to filter dirty water
5-2477
5th Grade
Nativity Catholic School
2024 San Mateo County Office of Education STEM Fair
Abstract
Access to clean water is something that most people in the United States take for granted. 785 million people in the world lake access to clean water. Most of the deaths in poverty stricken countries are due to poor drinking water. I can not fix the global water crisis, but this project will help me to educate others and help me to better understand water filtration. I chose three simple materials to filter dirty water through; cotton balls, coffee filters, and rocks. I used water test strips to see which material provides the best filtration. My hypothesis was that coffee filters would work the best. After completing the experiment I learned that cotton balls were the best way to filter dirty water. This was proven by the test kits and the way the water looked. I hope this projects educates my classmates that not all people in the world have access to clean water and inspires them to also want to get involved.
Purpose Statement
My project examines the best way to filter dirty water. I want to do this project because there are many people around the world that die from drinking dirty water. I am going to look at simple ways to filter dirty water with items most people have in their homes. The results from this experiment will show what the best material is to filter water with. It will also teach fellow students about the difficulty of getting clean water in parts of the world. The information from this project will help others by using simple materials to better filter water.
Hypothesis
What is the best way to filter dirty water?
I think that the best way to filter dirty water is to use coffee filters. I think this because the dirt particles are too large to pass through the filter paper.
Experimental Procedures and
Materials
Materials: Water, dirt, jar, plastic cups, coffee filter, cotton balls, rocks, and water test strips
Procedure:
*See Appendix A for photo of process
Experimental Results
Of the three different materials used, cotton balls were the best way to filter dirty water. The water looked more clear than coffee filters or rocks. The water test strip showed that after passing the water through the cotton ball filter the water had results that were most similar to the tap water. The dirty water when tested with a water test strip showed higher nitrates, NaCL, Sulfites, higher alkalinity, and carbonate than the cotton balls. The coffee filters were the next best and the rocks were last.
See table on next slide for results
Results Chart
Photos of results
Analysis of Experimental
Results
Based on my experiment I learned that cotton balls are the best simple materials to filter water. Visually, the dirty water filtered by cotton balls looked the cleanest. I learned that rocks are the material that had the worst filtration. Using the water filtration strips I was able to closely look at different chemicals, metals, and properties of water to see if the materials were really working rather than just relying on what I could see with my own eyes.
Conclusions
I originally thought that coffee filters would the best way to filter dirty water. My experiment proved that this was incorrect and that cotton balls were the best way to simply filter water. This experiment made me wonder what other simple materials I could use. If cotton balls worked well, could I use clothing? I also wondered what materials would be needed to filter out bacteria in water to be sure people didn’t get sick when actually drinking water. This may be a project I would like to do in the future. I learned how lucky I am to have easy access to clean drinking water. I hope this projects educates my classmates that not all people in the world have access to clean water and inspires them to also want to get involved.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my mom and dad for helping me with this project. Without them I would not have been able to complete this and learn what I did about water filtration. My dad helped to set up the experiment and be sure that I recorded the data correctly. My mom helped with organization and writing the slides. Thank you!
Bibliography and
Sources
Healing Waters International: Clean Water Initiative. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from http://healingwaters.org
McClelland, S. (2023, May 13). Water Filtration Lab. Little Bins for Little Hands. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from http://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/water-filter-activity/
Reid, K. (n.d.). Clean Water. World Vision. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://www.worldvision.org/our-work/clean-water
Tripp, K. (n.d.). Water Filtration Experiment. Teach Beside Me. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://teachbesideme.com/water-filtration-experiment/
What We Do — Water is Basic. (n.d.). Water is Basic. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://www.waterisbasic.org/what-we-do
Appendix A
Appendix A Continued