The purpose of this H20 action project was to build a homemade water filter. My water filter had to turn local, non-potable water into clean drinking water. What I learned in this unit was the purity and complexity of water. I learned how to test the pH level of water and how to solve logarithmic equations. My challenges in this action project was trying to figure out where I would get all my materials. Luckily for me I had all my materials at home that I did not know about. This made my project an inexpensive one all I had to buy was a plastic pop bottle which was $2.10! The most enjoyable part for this action project was making the water filter. I liked getting my hands a little dirty with the sand, and dirt. I like that I had an experience making non-potable water drinkable. I am really proud that my water filter actually worked!
Photography JV Water Filter 2013*
We just finished the unit which was studying the purity and complexity of water in my science/math class. For our action project, our class was asked to build a water filter that would turn local, non-potable water into clean drinking water. I am really proud of my water filter working. I did not think that the filter would work because it was homemade, but it worked! The image above is a sketch of my water filter.
HT. (2013); Build Day, Water Filter
To start building my water filter, I had to gather all of my materials. Luckily for me, being resourceful made the project an inexpensive one. All I had to buy was a plastic pop bottle, which was $2.10, and my teacher provided the activated carbon and coffee filters. The materials needed were: Jelly jar, sand, dirt, gravel, plastic bottle, activated carbon, coffee filters, and small a glass beaker. The steps that I took to build my water filter were: 1) Gather all materials and test the pH of the outdoor water source. 2) Poke holes in the bottom of the plastic bottle, so the water can get through. 3) Layer coffee filters on the bottom of the bottle so it will trap all contaminated particles. 4) Layer the plastic bottle with sand, dirt, and gravel, in that order from bottom to top. 5) Pour dirty water over the top of the layers. 6) Collect filtered water in a Jelly jar. 7) Add a small amount (1 gram) of activated carbon to the newly filtered water and swirl to mix the water and carbon. 8) Filter the water a second time through coffee filters to remove the carbon. 9) Test the pH of the water.
Photography JV Water Filter 2013*
The kind of water I used was River/pond water. Before I filtered my river water, I tested it on litmus paper and it came out to be a pH of 4, which is acidic. After filtering the water, I tested it again, and it came out to be a pH of 7.2, which is slightly basic, but still drinkable, because it falls in the “safe” range of our bodies. I calculated the pH difference, which was 2.8 (7.2-4). I also know that the equation for pH is -log[H+]. If you convert to a power form and plug in pH, you get 10^2.8 = 631. This number means that my water was 631 times more basic than before filtering. In other words, the number of hydroxyl ions increased. I would expect the water to taste refreshing.
My filter worked because I used natural resources. Each layer contributed to cleaning the water. For example, the coffee filter seemed to be the most important part of the filtration system, because it caught the dirt particles. My filter is similar to groundwater because groundwater gets filtered naturally. The water filtered through my system goes through the exact same layers (sand, dirt, and gravel). I packed my coffee filters at bottom of my bottle. I placed the sand as the middle layer and the gravel was the top layer.The most compact layer was the bottom because the coffee filters were the base. The rest of the layers were weighing the coffee filters down. When the water goes through these layers it gets cleaned. I chose this design, because it looked like the simplest way to filter water. I also chose this design, because I like how the lighter materials went on the bottom and the heavier went on the top. I like this design because the heavier materials pack down the lighter ones. This made the filter work faster because the water was pushed down and cleaned faster. The similarity of my design to groundwater filtration is what I believe made my filter work.
Citations
- "Practical Primitive". practicalprimitive.com. Starnater, Eddie. Martin,Julie. LLC. 2012. Web. 27 September 2013.
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