I believe the more materials put in my filter, the better it will work. This is because every material I will use in my filters like gravel, sand, or activated carbon will serve a scientific purpose and if I use them all it will really help to clean the water. Gravel and sand are used effectively to filter rainwater into groundwater and activated carbon is commonly used in industrial water filters in brands like Brita, etc.

Manipulated variable: The materials I put into my filters

Responding variable: The turbidity of the filtered water

Controlled variables: The amount of dirt put in the water that will be filtered (4 tablespoons per trial)

                                   The amount of water I filter (250 ml per trial)

Experiment 1:

1. Cut of the bottom of a plastic water bottle

2. Make a hole in the lid of the bottle

3. Flip the water bottle over and place it in a glass vase

4.Place some gravel in the plastic water bottle

5. Place some sand in the plastic water bottle

6.  Put four tablespoons of dirt in 250 ml tap water and filter the water by slowly pouring it into your filter

7. Observe the results.

Experiment 2:

1. Cut of the bottom of a plastic water bottle

2. Remove the lid from the bottle

3. Flip the water bottle over and place it in a glass vase

4. Place a few cotton balls in the plastic water bottle

5. Place some gravel in the plastic water bottle

6. Place some sand in the plastic water bottle

7.  Put four tablespoons of dirt in 250 ml tap water and filter the water by slowly pouring it into your filter

8. Observe the results

Experiment 3:

1. Cut of the bottom of a plastic water bottle

2. Remove the lid from the bottle

3. Cover the top of the bottom with a coffee filter (Use a rubber band to put it on)

4. Flip the water bottle over and place it in a glass vase

5. Place a few cotton balls in the plastic water bottle

6. Place some gravel in the plastic water bottle

7. Place some sand in the plastic water bottle

8. Put four tablespoons of dirt in 250 ml tap water and filter the water by slowly pouring it into your filter

9. Observe the results.

Experiment 4:

1. Cut of the bottom of a plastic water bottle

2. Remove the lid from the bottle

3. Cover the top of the bottom with a coffee filter (Use a rubber band to put it on)

4. Flip the water bottle over and place it in a glass vase

5. Place a few cotton balls in the plastic water bottle

6. Place some gravel in the plastic water bottle

7. Place some activated carbon in the plastic water bottle

8. Put four tablespoons of dirt in 250 ml tap water and filter the water by slowly pouring it into your filter

9. Observe the results

Experiment 5:

1. Cut of the bottom of a plastic water bottle

2. Remove the lid from the bottle

3. Cover the top of the bottom with a coffee filter (Use a rubber band to put it on)

4. Flip the water bottle over and place it in a glass vase

5. Place a few cotton balls in the plastic water bottle

6. Place some gravel in the plastic water bottle

7. Place some sand in the plastic water bottle

8. Place some activated carbon in the plastic water bottle

9. Filter 250 ml of tap water with 4 tablespoons of dirt in it

10.  Refilter 250 ml of tap water with 4 tablespoons of dirt in it

11. Observe the results.

Experiment 6:

Same procedure as experiment 5, but on step 9 you filter clear water in it instead of dirty water.

Experiment 1:

• After filtration, water still has quite a large number of suspended particles in it
• Water also had quite a murky brown colour, possibly due to the sand
• Filtered quite quickly, likely due to the limited amount of layers the water had to pass through

Experiment 2:

• Filter failed as all the filtration materials ended up falling through the filter
• The filtered water has many suspended particles in it, likely due to the filtration materials
• The cotton balls used have also slipped through and settled at the bottom

Experiment 3:

• Less suspended particles than experiment 1, but still a few
• Water still looking quite sandy
• The addition of the coffee filter did not seem to have a large effect

Experiment 4:

• Barely any suspended particles remaining
• Water looks much clearer than before, just a hint of black from the newly added activated carbon
• Removing sand from the filter made the water much clearer

Experiment 5 (Refiltered with dirty water):

• No suspended particles in the filtered water
• Water is much clearly than the first trial, only a slight tinge of black
• After refiltration, the colour of the sand was not clearly visible in the filtered water
• Took a long time to filter as the water had to pass through many layers

Experiment 6 (Filtered with clean water first, then dirty water):

• No suspended particles
• Extremely clear after refiltration, nearly completely clear
• No colour of the filtration materials were visible in the filtered water.
• Filtering with clean water first works better than filtering with dirty water
• Took a long time to filter as the water had to pass through many layers

Overall, my hypothesis was correct. This is because experiments 4,5, and 6 which had the most materials inside them perfromed the best. I believe this is because as I said in my hypothesis, every material in my experiment serves a purpose and each material will counter the others negatives such as excess pigmentation of the filtered water, etc. However, I did notice that some results in my experiment may have been unfair as I refiltered some experiments but did not refilter others, or I poured too much water at a time in some experiments such as experiment 2, which may have caused the whole experiment to cave in. Another factor that came into play in my experiment is the fact that most of my materials were process and thus contained artificial colours in them, so even if the suspended particles were removed from the water it would likely remain a musty colour.

In the real world, filtration systems can be helpful in remote areas where clean water is tough to get, such as remote colonies in places like Africa or India. This method can be helpful as it can remove various suspended particles from the water before you boil it to remove hidden bacteria prior to consumption.This method also improves the turbidity of the water, which was the main factor I was testing in this experiment. Another place this experiment can be used is in the wild, as most of the materials used in these experiment are quite easy to find across places like forests, etc. However, further research needs to be done on how well these filters can remove other materials from water like plant matter, etc.

In my filters I did not control the amount of filtration material I used, making it so some filters may have gooten more material than others and giving them an unfair advantage.

I kept retrieving the water I will filter in the same measuring cup without cleansing it, making it so some of the dirt I am using in the water I will filter may have sedimented on the edges of my measuring cup.

In different filters, I poured the water in at different speeds, making it so some filters like experiment 2 were overwhelmed and could not remove all the suspended particles.

1. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/make-a-water-filter/

 

 

2. https://www.lovetoknow.com/parenting/kids/homemade-water-filter-science-project

 

 

 

3. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Chem_p108/chemistry/which-filtration-material-leads-to-the-best-drinking-water

 

 

4. https://www.science-sparks.com/cleaning-up-water-looking-at-filtering/

 

 

 

5. https://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/make-a-water-filter-science-experiment/

 

 

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Big9Ut6Mc

 

 

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UkB8vUpuRE

 

 

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZpzcItQkc

 

9. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/books/article/water-wonders

 

10. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/books/article/water-wonder

 

      11.https://thehomeschoolscientist.com/charcoal-water-purifying-experiment/

 

      12.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH-2HyTpmC0

 

      13.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOQmdEuwgms

 

First of all, I would like to thank my parents for pushing me to keep going in my project, even when things got hard and helping me with any problems that may have occured

Next, I would like to thank my science teacher, Ms. Paulson for giving me helpful tips on how to improve my experiments

I would also like to thank the creators of the many websites I used for research, for helping me understand what water filtration is, and giving me ideas on how to build my project