Make a water filter

How to make a water filter with sand and charcoal

It’s a fa­mil­iar sit­u­a­tion: you go camp­ing with friends, and you don’t have enough wa­ter. In this ex­per­i­ment, you’ll find out how to pu­ri­fy wa­ter from the near­est pond, You only need a plas­tic bot­tle, sand and a few burnt logs.

Be sure to boil the wa­ter af­ter fil­tra­tion. Wa­ter may con­tain heavy met­als, so it is rec­om­mend­ed for util­i­ty pur­pos­es, and should only be drunk in ex­treme ne­ces­si­ty.

 

This activity has been provided by STEAMfest sponsor MEL Science!”

Step-by-step in­struc­tions 

Cut the bot­tom off the plas­tic bot­tle. Un­screw the lid of the bot­tle, make a hole in it with the awl and place cot­ton wool in the lid. Close the bot­tle and turn it up­side down. Place lay­ers of sand and char­coal in the bot­tle. The more lay­ers, the bet­ter the pu­rifi­ca­tion will be. The fil­ter is ready!

Process de­scrip­tion

Dirty wa­ter con­tains many or­gan­ic and min­er­al im­pu­ri­ties, and also var­i­ous in­sol­u­ble par­ti­cles of dust and earth. The sand pu­ri­fies the wa­ter of in­sol­u­ble par­ti­cles. Char­coal has good ad­sorp­tion and so ad­sorbs or­gan­ic and min­er­al im­pu­ri­ties. How­ev­er, this fil­ter has a con­sid­er­able draw­back: it does not pu­ri­fy the wa­ter from bac­te­ria and heavy met­als. So af­ter fil­tra­tion the wa­ter should be boiled well.

Journal Questions
  1. Did you make your own filter?
  2. Did it clean the water?
  3. Why is clean water important?

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Topics

ScienceEngineering
Grade Level
2-3
4-5
6-8
9-12
K-1

Creator

Picture of Mel Science

Mel Science

Science experiments for kids, delivered to your door!

Materials

  • char­coal (100 g)
  • sand (300 g)
  • plas­tic bot­tle with a lid
  • sta­tionery knife
  • cot­ton wool
  • awl