Water Purification Lab

By: Emma, Gabby and Lucah

Question: What is the best way to filter muddy water?

Requirements:
1) Your filter must allow at least 250mL of water to pass through without clogging up.
2) Remove enough of the soil particles so that the water that has passed through is
noticeably clearer

Research:
 There is three states of matter solid, liquid and gas.
 Water is the most common solvent; therefore, there can be many different types of solutes
that are in the water and need to be removed.
 Sand is used to remove suspended matter and floating/sinkable particles.

Hypothesis:
If we pour 1litre of dirty water through a sifter, large rocks, sand and finally a cheese cloth, then the
water should be clean.

Materials:
 Sifter
 Sand
 Medium size rocks
 Fish rocks (or small pieces of gravel)
 Cheese Cloth
 Big plastic water bottle
 1L of dirty water
 Bin for clean water
Procedure:
Step 1) Cut 3 cm of the bottom of the large bottle to allow water to enter the filtration
system.
Step 2) Roll your cheese cloth tight enough to fit in the lid, then stuff it in the top of the
bottle (where your drink out of.)
Step 3) Flip the bottle so the “top” is now where the bottom would normal be.
Step 4) Add sand on top of the cheese cloth tr
Step 5) After the sand is in add the fish rocks on top
Step 6) Then,

Observations/Data:
Start time:
Time Before Filtration Time During Filtration Time After Filtration
The water is very dirty. The large chunks have
been removed.
Smaller pieces of mud

have been removed.
Some of the water has

been absorbed by the
sand but most is still
going through the filter.
The water went through

the cheese cloth and is
 now _________.

Analyzing/Interpreting/Questioning:
One improvement we could make to the filter we designed

Even though the water looks clean and drinkable it is not. I know his because there is harmful
microorganisms still in the water that need to be killed by chlorine.

The construction of our filter compares to other groups in our class because…

The group ____ removed the most soil particles compared to others.

Our water filter compares with earth’s natural water filter at cleaning because

Conclusion
Our hypothesis was correct. When we added 1 liter of dirty water to our filtration system the water
came out clean.

To Bring-
-Big Rocks
-Procedure
Emma-
-Sand
-Fish Rocks
-Sifter
Lucah-
-Cheese Cloth
-Bin for clean water
Gabby-
-Big Rocks
-Big Water Bottle