 your results
Sent in by:
Jaban of Greene, ME and Cara of Maple Plain, MN
Hydro-neers wanted. Invent a filter to clean dirty water.
- 2-liter soda bottle cut in half (by an adult)
- napkins or paper towels
- gravel, sand and cotton balls for your filter
- dirty water, you can make it by adding cooking oil, food coloring, pieces of paper, and tiny pieces of Styrofoam to water
- Put the top half of the soda bottle upside-down (like a funnel) inside the bottom half. The top half will be where you build your filter; the bottom half will hold the filtered water.
- Layer the filter materials inside the top half of the bottle. Think about what each material might remove from the dirty water and in what order you should layer the materials. For an added challenge, use only two of materials to build your filter.
- Pour the dirty water through the filter. What does the filtered water look like?
- Take the filter apart and look at the different layers. Can you tell what each material removed from the water?
- Wipe the bottle clean and try again. Try putting materials in different layers or using different amounts of materials.
Now it's time to experiment. Think of a question you want answered. Like, are there better materials for cleaning water? Be sure to predict what you think is going to happen. Then, test it out using different materials and send your reports in to our special feedback area. Every week, we'll publish a whole bunch.
Joe, age 12 of Chicago, IL wrote:
it came out awsom- the thing is we aded activated carbon. that got the bacteria out.
Wyatt, age 12 of IL wrote:
I tried to do it with only the paper towels and gravel. It actually worked pretty well, though a bit of food coloring still leaked trough.
Latasha, age 9 of Baton Rouge, LA wrote:
I made a water filter and mine came out great. my drity water was mixed with dirt, I put a paer towel in then I pour the water in it and it started to filter. I was happy my water came out very very clear.
Ennis, age 7 of Milton, NZ wrote:
it came out dirty!!!
Zack, age 15 of O'Fallon, IL wrote:
it didnt help.
Haadiya, age 11 of Botswana wrote:
i did not have much hope untill I tried it and it was very clear the water.
Bridget, age 13 of NH wrote:
it worked well. make sure the gravel is clean and I used pond water instead of trying to make the water dirty. great for science experiments!
Brandon, age 12 of Aylmer, QC wrote:
It worked 100%! I had to do a science experiment for school, I decided to try this, great guide!
Christopher of Bell Gardens, CA wrote:
it came out so good I drnk it and loved the experiment.
Brooke and Alex of Los Angeles, CA wrote:
It worked so well!!! you could see through it!!! we had the dirtiest water ever and it turned out as clean as bottled water!!!
LD, age 14 of Charleston, SC wrote:
When I did my walter filter it didnt come out crystal clear but it came out clear enough and didnt have any particles in it. I had to do this for a science project. The materials I used were nylon stockings, cotton balls, sand, tissue paper, charcoal, napkins, rocks and gravel.
Delilah, age 11 of Sydney wrote:
At first it didnt work, so I checked again on this page and I found at that I put the layered material on the bottom half. So then it worked when I rearanged it.
Shawall, age 13 of Tornto, ON wrote:
it worked really well and cleaned the water.
Jessica, age 13 of Carson, CA wrote:
It was amazing in like 15 minutes the water was clear and beautiful and before it looked contaminated. so it was a fun activity and I am looking forward to doing another zoom experiment.
Caitlin of Jacksonville, NC wrote:
Me and my best friend kristin tried this experiment for our 8th grade science fair project to help find a way to get clean water for our school's cafeteria. it worked-well you should totaly try it.
Theo, age 13 of Jacksonville, NC wrote:
the water was like clear and everything it was like drinkin water.
Abby, age 14 of Toronto, ON wrote:
it still came out yellow or brown-ish.
Cass, age 13 of Singapore wrote:
The water that came out was quite clear but the sand that I collected was quite dirty. I am not sure that the filtered water can be drunk or not. Afraid that I will have a stomach ache.
Brianna & Hailey of Ukiah, CA wrote:
when we poured the water through the filter it came out clean.
Abhi, age 12 of Brampton wrote:
This experiment was excellent for my science project.
Kiki, age 13 of HI wrote:
this worked really good!
Ashley, age 12 of VA wrote:
it worked out really good. I put cotton balls at the bottom, sand above the cotton balls, tissue paper above the sand, fish tank rocks above the tissue paper, a napkin above the fish tank rocks, and last I put gravel/rocks.
Grace, age 13 of Garden Grove, CA wrote:
It was very clean compared to the dirty water I just used!.
Kylie, age 13 of Kitchener, ON wrote:
came out amazing, told other people about how great it worked, my teacher loves it:) Thanks For This:)
ZOOM Fan, age 13 of TX wrote:
Sadly I lost the desire of trying this experiment ever again; on my first try the water came out practically the same.
Emma, age 10 of Cape Town, S. Africa wrote:
I used a plastic bottle. I washed my sand and gravel. I put cotton wool at the bottom, put gravel on top of that and the sand on top of gravel. We put in very dirty water, mine came out clear. I was proud of my work.
Aanish, age 11 of Toronto, ON wrote:
It was amazing I had some difficulty with food colour but it was great.
Sarah, age 9 of New Jersey wrote:
The water still was ugly... it didn't work AT ALL!!
Anish, age 11 of Toronto, Canada wrote:
It did work. But the oild did not go. But NICE! my school project worked.
Jade of Hilo, HI wrote:
it came out clear and I tried it and it tasted like DASANI... LOL wow that was KEWL!
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