Clean Water For All
Around the world, many human beings have little access to water. Water is a major need and a basic human right that should be easy to acquire for all people across the globe. This problem has been researched and worked on by scientists for many decades and some progress has been made on this challenge. Our goal during this project was to help fix this massive problem. As a group and a class, we worked to create cheap, efficient, and easy to use tools that would help areas that don't currently have easy access to water. During the project we found that this problem is difficult and complex to solve on many levels. From the cost of transportation and maintaining of the device to the education of the people are going to use the device it would take extensive time, training, and money. With all this on mind, we tried our best to do our part in this massive problem.
Our project consisted of two steps, filtering and boiling. My group and I used a 5 stage filtering process that gave us the clearest water possible before boiling. The filtering phases separated the largest debris in the initial layers to the smallest in the final stages. This process filtered everything found in the initial pond water we used from sticks and rocks to fish feces and algae. Our next phase focused on the removal of bacteria in the water. This was done by boiling the water and cooling the water, now in a gaseous state, to reform as a liquid and drip down through a plastic tube and into another beaker. Through many trials, our system became more efficient and less time consuming but it still needs more revising until it can be released to the public.
This project took real world problems and focused our attention to real world solutions and ways we can solve these daunting tasks. Not only was this project in line with real world situations it also kept us engaged and creative while making a fun and interactive experience. Below you can see more about this project along with pictures and data we collected from our experiments.
Our project consisted of two steps, filtering and boiling. My group and I used a 5 stage filtering process that gave us the clearest water possible before boiling. The filtering phases separated the largest debris in the initial layers to the smallest in the final stages. This process filtered everything found in the initial pond water we used from sticks and rocks to fish feces and algae. Our next phase focused on the removal of bacteria in the water. This was done by boiling the water and cooling the water, now in a gaseous state, to reform as a liquid and drip down through a plastic tube and into another beaker. Through many trials, our system became more efficient and less time consuming but it still needs more revising until it can be released to the public.
This project took real world problems and focused our attention to real world solutions and ways we can solve these daunting tasks. Not only was this project in line with real world situations it also kept us engaged and creative while making a fun and interactive experience. Below you can see more about this project along with pictures and data we collected from our experiments.
Filtering System |
Boiling System |
Filtering Boiling System Creating Clean Water
Slideshow Presentation
In the slideshow we have the outline of our project. You can also see the data that we gathered such as the pH of our water along with the waters ppm before and after the filtration system.
Content
During this project we learned a many new terms and concepts that added to our knowledge of science and cleaning of water. We used these terms throughout our project to gather and explain our knowledge to our fellow classmates.
The Filter: (Between each layer of our filter were two coffee filters separating our filtering materials.
- Solution : A homogeneous mixture of two or more substances in a single phase. In a solution, atoms, molecules, or ions are thoroughly mixed, resulting in a mixture that has the same composition and properties throughout. Solutions relate to our project because they are the basis of water purification. The job of a filter is to remove harmful substances out of water solution to make it safe to drink.
- Solute and Solvent : A solute is the substance dissolved in a solution, and a solvent is the dissolving medium in a solution. A solute and solvent are what comprise a solution. These are important to water filtration because solutes in water are what purification techniques aim to remove from water, the solvent.
- pH : A measure of hydrogen ion concentration, measurement of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. Aqueous solutions at 25°C with a pH less than 7 are acidic, while those with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline. This term is important to our project because water solution that strays too far from a pH of 7 in either direction becomes dangerous to the human body.
- electrolyte : A chemical compound that dissolves into ions when in solution. Due to its breaking down into ions, an electrolyte is able to conduct electricity. Therefore, a non electrolyte is thus a bad electrical conductor, and does not readily dissociate into ions. Electrolytes are important for organisms as they allow certain processes such as muscle contraction and nerve activation to occur.
- polarity : A separation of electric charge leading to a molecule having an electric dipole moment, with a negatively charged end and a positively charged end. Water molecules are polar, and as a result are a good solvent. When an electrolyte is introduced to a water solution, the positively charged ions are surrounded by the negatively charged side of water molecules, and the negative ions are surrounded by the positively charged side of water. This results in a better dismemberment of solvent into water.
The Filter: (Between each layer of our filter were two coffee filters separating our filtering materials.
- The Metal Mesh: This mesh wiring along the top layer of the filter was used as our initial layer catching big chunks of debris and other things in the water at the start. This allowed the rest of the filter to focus on the smaller things left in the water.
- The Colored Gravel: For the next layer we used colored gravel that is commonly found in the bottom of fish tanks. We used this gravel so that smaller pieces of debris would be caught and eliminated from our water and make it closer to being able to boil.
- Sand: This sand was brought in from the sand pit used for track and field at school. We cooked the sand in a dish so the bacteria in the sand would die before we used it in our filter. This layer in our filter took out the smallest of debris and particles in our water and set up the last and most important phase of the filter.
- Activated Charcoal: Activated charcoal is a fine black powder made from bone char, coconut shells, peat, petroleum coke, coal, olive pits or sawdust.The charcoal is "activated" by processing it at very high temperatures. The high temperatures change its internal structure, reducing the size of its pores and increasing its surface area. This charcoal takes out harmful bacteria and the tiniest of molecules in the water that can't be treated by boiling. This layer of our filter was one of the final and the most important layer because it was essentially our water's last check before boiling.
- 5 Coffee filters: These last coffee filters held all of our materials in the filter and allowed for the debris to settle in the filter and not flow out with the rest of the water after being separated.
- Heating: My group and I used a hot plate to heat our flask that contained the water that just came out of the filter.
- Cooling and transporting: We used a plastic bendy tube wrapped in an ice pack to transport and cool our water in a gaseous state into the other flask. The ice pack cooled the gas enough so that as it was traveling through the tube, the gas cooled and turned back into water and flowed down into the bottom flask with the clean water.
Reflection
This project had many learning opportunities. Many of them positive but some of them negative. All of them however will make me a better classmate, teammate and person. One positive learning experience during this process was my growth in teamwork and collaboration abilities with my fellow classmates. During this project I had to work well with and communicate with my group mates and all of my classmates. This project made collaboration a necessity due to the need to share materials and ideas with each other. This practice with teamwork and leadership values will help me in future group settings in school and life which will be crucial to my success as a person. Another great aspect that came out of this project was my new found knowledge of global problems that need to be solved before we can truly move forward as a human race. This project opened my eyes to the glaring need for access to water across the globe. Before this project I did not know the scale on which this problem existed. This project has motivated me to find solutions to this major problem and work on or think about different ways we can provide water to all even after the conclusion of the in class project.
Another learning point coming from this project was learning about cost efficiency when testing new designs for our filters. On multiple occasions we tested our water filters and they failed. This is good to learn from but can be very costly to the teacher or to ourselves when running experiments in the future. We learned to conserve resources and truly plan out every test to have the best possible outcome before trying it. This will be important in the future so that on bigger projects we will be efficient will valuable resources and time. Another "negative" learning experience was communication in our group. Because of the two testing weeks that conflicted with our project we were not able to communicate as well as we could have with each other as a group. In the future we should create a group chat to coordinate plans and or ideas amongst the group. This will make group projects or presentation type settings stay on task more of the time when people are away. This will in turn create a more organized setting to work in and create a more productive work environment with a better end goal.
Another learning point coming from this project was learning about cost efficiency when testing new designs for our filters. On multiple occasions we tested our water filters and they failed. This is good to learn from but can be very costly to the teacher or to ourselves when running experiments in the future. We learned to conserve resources and truly plan out every test to have the best possible outcome before trying it. This will be important in the future so that on bigger projects we will be efficient will valuable resources and time. Another "negative" learning experience was communication in our group. Because of the two testing weeks that conflicted with our project we were not able to communicate as well as we could have with each other as a group. In the future we should create a group chat to coordinate plans and or ideas amongst the group. This will make group projects or presentation type settings stay on task more of the time when people are away. This will in turn create a more organized setting to work in and create a more productive work environment with a better end goal.