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See how two high school students approached the same problem, with more specific constraints and criteria.

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The first step in our project is we created a design brief, team responsibilities, and Gantt chart. We made our Gantt chart nice and simple, following the design process and plotting what step we...

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Homemade design using soda bottles to clean water.  Great example of someone using the engineering design process!

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Simple Water Distillation for Bushcraft and Survival

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DIY fresh water - free solar soda bottle still easy quick to make

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How to make a simple solar water still to make your own fresh water from soda PET bottles quickly and at almost no cost.

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Using the power of the sun to purify water.

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WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW ARE THEY SAVING WATER

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'Shade Balls:' What Are They and How Are They Saving Water?

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Aug. 17 -- Water managers in Los Angeles are managing drought pressure on city water supplies by covering their major reservoir with 96 million little plastic balls. Xavierc President and Founder Sydney Chase speaks on "Market Makers." -- Subscribe to Bloomberg on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/Bloomberg Bloomberg Television offers extensive coverage and analysis of international business news and stories of global importance.

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HOW CALIFORNIA SAVED THEMSELVES FROM THE DROUGHT

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SPEECHES & EVENTS

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Shade Balls Are Released into the Los Angeles Water Reservoir (VIDEO)

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Full Epeech - Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump delivers campaign speech rally Donald Trump Rally Donald Trump Speech Donald Trump campaign

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THIS BABY IS ADORABLE

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Have you ever wondered if you can make your own water filter at home? Well, by simply replicating the layers in the ground, you can mimic the natural water filtration process that happens in the water cycle.

I began teaching my daughter about water filtration and ways we might be able to clean up dirty water. I let her brainstorm for a minute to come up with a few ideas. Her first thought was to use a strainer to clean out dirt, but the holes were far too big and cleaned out almost nothing. Next up she wanted to try a fabric napkin. While this worked a bit better, our water was still muddy. Once she was out of ideas, and my kitchen was a near disaster, I showed her another way we could build our own water filter.

Supplies

For this experiment you will need:

Our Experiment Begins

I chose to use a plastic bottle. We often don't recommend the usage of plastic bottles in your day to day life but today you can put an old one to good use. Start off by cutting the bottom off of the bottle with a pair of scissors. This is the only step of this experiment that was not kid friendly but everything else is safe and easy for little hands. Now turn your bottle upside down into the vase. It's time to start layering. First layer will be your cotton balls. You want to have 1-2 inches of cotton. Next layer will be your activated charcoal. I used about an inch worth. Lucky for me I had most of these items left over from the terrarium we made a few months ago. An even better idea would be to do both at the same time to help teach your kids about the water cycle. Overtop of the charcoal, add 2 inches of gravel. You can also use stones if you have no gravel. Your next layer will be 3-4 inches of sand. Since your sand is there to trap larger particles, the cleaner the sand the better this experiment will turn out. Lastly, add another layer of gravel.

Bring on the Dirt

Now take a nice big glass of water and dirty it up. Mix a good amount of dirt into it and turn it into mud. My daughter loved this part.

Pour your muddy water into the top of your water filter and watch it slowly saturate the layers and make its way through your filter into the glass beneath.

Our Results, Filtered Water

Ideally, you'll have some lovely clear water come out the other end. While it's not the cleanest water I've seen, I think we did a pretty good job. It's definitely not drinkable though, so please don't try. You never know what kind of contaminants could be hiding in there.

This was a great, educational activity that helped expand on the filtration process of the water cycle and explain how water filters work. I much prefer my Filter Butler water filtration system though!

The following two tabs change content below.

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How to Make Your Own Homemade Water Filter

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Have you ever wondered if you can make your own water filter at home? Well, by simply replicating the layers in the ground, you can mimic the natural water filtration process that happens in the water cycle. I began teaching my daughter about water filtration and ways we might be able to clean up dirty water.

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FOLOW THE STEPS = WATER FILTER

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Water is essential to life. This technique is very useful when you are hunting to survive. People can live up to a week without food, but only two to three days without water. Clean water can be hard to find if you get stranded in the wild...

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LifeStraw® water filters convert contaminated water into clean, safe drinking water. The easy-to-use filters are a vital tool for some of the 780 million people who don’t have ready access to safe drinking water

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LifeStraw water filters make dirty water safe drinking water.

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LifeStraw water filters help millions of people without safe drinking water by converting contaminated water into clean, safe drinking water.

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READ MORE

We must stand against racism. We must stand together.

Read our statement: www.lifestraw.com/racism

Outdoors

Water filtration and purification devices for all your outdoor adventures.

Travel

Wherever life takes you, you should feel confident in your water. Check out our reusable water bottles with filter.

Emergency prep

Be prepared for any emergency.

Daily use

Bottles and water filtration devices for everyday use.

Replacement filters & spares

Your Purchase Has Impact

Through our Give Back program, we've given safe water to over 1 million children worldwide.

Giving back

"If bottled water is hard to deliver, portable water purifiers are vital"

"Powerful weapon against African diseases."

"LifeStraw Saves Those Without Access to Clean Drinking Water."

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READ MORE Read our statement: www.lifestraw.com/racism Water filtration and purification devices for all your outdoor adventures. Wherever life takes you, you should feel confident in your water. Check out our reusable water bottles with filter. Be prepared for any emergency. Bottles and water filtration devices for everyday use.

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PBS KIDS WATER FILTER

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ZOOM . activities . sci . Water Filter | PBS Kids

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Lidia, age 13 of Deer Park, NY wrote: it was so fun doing this type of filter im going to take this to my social studies teacher because she gave us a week to do this and it came out wellAshleyy, age 14 of Toronto, NY wrote: When we did this experiment it exploded..

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California places limits on water use.

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It looks like the page you are looking for has moved, is no longer available, or never existed.

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Los Angeles finds a unique way to conserve water.

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(Art Mochizuki/Los Angeles Department of Water and Power via AP)

LA gets blackballed (actually, it's just water)

Los Angeles has been blackballed.

The city has completed a program of covering open-air reservoirs with floating "shade balls" to protect water quality.

City officials have dumped the last 20,000 of 96 million black balls into the Los Angeles Reservoir. It's located in Sylmar. That is 25 miles northwest of downtown.

The 4-inch-diameter plastic balls block sunlight from piercing the 175-acre surface of the reservoir.

That prevents chemical reactions. Those can cause algae blooms and other problems. And it allows the Department of Water and Power to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water-quality requirements.

The balls have the added perk of aiding with the ravages of the drought. They are expected to keep about 300 million gallons annually from evaporating.

"In the midst of California's historic drought, it takes bold ingenuity to maximize my goals for water conservation," Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. The effort is "emblematic of the kind of the creative thinking we need to meet those challenges."

Each of the balls costs 36 cents. The balls also will help prevent evaporation of 300 million gallons of water annually. The reservoir holds 3.3 billion gallons.

The city began using shade balls in 2008. They now also cover the Upper Stone, Elysian and Ivanhoe reservoirs.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

How do the black balls conserve water?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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LA gets blackballed (actually, it's just water)

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(Art Mochizuki/Los Angeles Department of Water and Power via AP) LA gets blackballed (actually, it's just water) Los Angeles has been blackballed. The city has completed a program of covering open-air reservoirs with floating "shade balls" to protect water quality. City officials have dumped the last 20,000 of 96 million black balls into the Los Angeles Reservoir.

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Ever wonder what happens inside your Brita filter? Water filtration has been around since the early 1800's but our methods have really improved with time.

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...Its a game...AN EDUCATIONAL GAME HAHAHAHHAHAH!

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POLLUTION AND FILTRATION SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

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POLLUTION AND FILTRATION SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

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FOR KIDS

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Water Pollution and Filtration Science Experiments for Kids

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Resources to learn about pollution and filtration science experiments for Kids.

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Bringing clean water to people looks different in each country. Water sources, terrain, and population all play a part in determining what technology is required to serve people well, but there’s a solution to everything.

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Bringing clean water to people looks different in each country. Water sources, terrain, and population all play a part in determining what technology is required to serve people well, but there's a solution to everything. Learn about the technologies we're using to bring people clean water.

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Michael Pritchard: How to make filthy water drinkable

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Michael Pritchard: How to make filthy water drinkable

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LIVESTRONG - WHY WATER NEEDS TO BE CLEAN

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LIVESTRONG - WHY WATER NEEDS TO BE CLEAN

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DO WE REALLY NEED CLEAN WATER

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Karen S. Garvin

Karen S. Garvin has been a professional writer since 1988, when "Dragon" magazine published her first article. Her recent work includes encyclopedia entries on historical subjects. She holds a bachelor's degree in communications and is pursuing a master's degree in European history. Her interests include photography, science, history and Steampunk.

Water can contain dirt, minerals, chemicals and other impurities that make it smell and taste bad. Some of these contaminants can endanger your health, especially when they include microscopic organisms and bacteria that can cause serious illness. Filtering water can help purify water, removing these impurities and making it safe to drink, while often improving its taste.

Video of the Day

Mechanical filters are used to remove leaves and other debris from water, along with dirt, silt and clay particles in water. Mechanical filters may be made from metal screens, fabric, ceramic or paper. These impurities, called sediment, can cause an unpleasant taste but aren't usually a health risk. Most home water filtration units use replaceable paper filters that screen out fine sediment.

Iron and other minerals, such as calcium and manganese, are not hazardous to human health, but they can cause drinking water to taste metallic or just unpleasant. Iron or manganese can cause clothing stains on when wash water contains these elements, and they can even discolor porcelain and other dishes washed in the mineral-rich water. These minerals can build up in water pipes, gradually clogging them and reducing water pressure, possibly causing plumbing problems.

Filtering water is essential to keep harmful bacteria and parasites from drinking water. Giardiasis is a type of illness that causes diarrhea and can last as long as six weeks. The microscopic parasite that causes the disease is Giardia intenstinalis, an organism that can survive in the environment for many months. It can be ingested from water that has become contaminated with animal or human feces. Another parasite that can cause similar symptoms is cryptosporidium. Cryptosporidium is resistant to chlorine and must be filtered out with mechanical filters. These pathogens are effectively removed by passing water through filters listed as micro-, ultra- and nano-filters.

Most municipal water utility companies use chlorine to treat drinking water because it's inexpensive, easy to use and highly effective at killing many of the bacteria found in water. It can also eliminate some viruses. While it's a good disinfectant, chlorine can make drinking water smell and taste unpleasant, and it can also react with some metals to form hazardous compounds. An activated carbon filter removes the chlorine smell and taste from water.

Lead is toxic when ingested, and it's essential to remove it from drinking water. Lead commonly gets into drinking water when it seeps into the water supply from old plumbing pipes or the solder used to join them together. It can be removed from water through reverse osmosis filters, distillation and carbon filters designed specifically to remove the metal. If you rely on well water, health agencies recommend that you have your well tested at least once a year for lead and other contaminants.

Before the 1940s most common pesticides contained heavy metals that did not readily dissolve in water, but today pesticide residue in drinking water may be on the rise because modern organic pesticides dissolve in water and can easily get into the water supply. Activated carbon filters can remove pesticides and volatile organic compounds from drinking water.

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Water can contain dirt, minerals, chemicals and other impurities that make it smell and taste bad. Some of these contaminants can endanger your health, especially when they include microscopic organisms and bacteria that can cause serious illness. Filtering water can help purify water, removing these impurities and making it safe to drink, while...

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CUZ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

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2 pictures
View gallery - 2 images
For people in developing nations or rural locations, getting clean water may soon be as simple as opening a book ... and ripping a page out. That's the idea behind The Drinkable Book, developed by Carnegie Mellon University postdoc Theresa Dankovich. Each of its pages is made from a thick sheet of paper impregnated with silver and copper nanoparticles, that kill 99.9 percent of microbes in tainted water that's filtered through it.

Dankovich began work on the technology when she was earning her doctorate at McGill University, continuing it at the University of Virginia's Center for Global Health. She has now formed a non-profit company, pAge Drinking Paper, to get the book into production and distribution.

Every page of the book is made up of two filters, each one of which in turn being capable of cleaning up to 26 US gallons (100 liters) of water - one book should reportedly be able to handle one person's water needs for four years.

After the filter is removed from the book, it's placed in an included box-like holder which is then mounted on top of a 5-gallon bucket. The dirty water is then poured through.

In field tests conducted in South Africa, Ghana, Haiti and Kenya, the paper achieved 99.9 percent purity when filtering water containing high amounts of bacteria from recently-dumped raw sewage. While some of the silver and copper particles do leach into the clean water, Dankovich says that the levels are well below Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization limits.

Theresa is now planning on further field studies, and refining the design of the book. She will presenting her work this week at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, in Boston. More information is available in the following video.
View gallery - 2 images

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The Drinkable Book has water-purifying pages

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For people in developing nations, getting clean water may soon be as simple as opening a book ... The Drinkable Book, that is. Each of its pages is made from a thick sheet of paper impregnated with silver nanoparticles, that kill 99.9 percent of microbes in tainted water.

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HEY YOU SHOULD ALSO READ THE ARTICLE ABOUT THIS "BOOK"

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DRINK UP

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YOU PROBABLY HAVE THIS IN YOUR HOME

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THE FANCIEST WATER FILTER IN HISTORY

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Kube Advanced Water Filtration System-Kube14 - The Home Depot

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Kube is an advanced water filtration system that provides clean, clear, thirst-quenching water right from your own faucet. That's right. Your faucet will dispense the water you crave for watering plants,

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FOR KIDS

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This Water Filter is very easy and quick to make. Most, if not all the materials can be found in or around your house. A Water Filter can be a necessary survival item if you have no access to clean water.

Materials Needed:

- Water Bottle
- Scissors or Knife
- Coffee Filter, Cotton Balls, or fabric.
- Sand or charcoal
- Gravel
- Large gravel or small rocks
- Cup to hold filtered and non-filtered water.

Step 2:

2) Using your knife, scissors, or anything sharp, make a small hole in the center of the cap. Make sure the cap is on tight!
In my case i used a small screwdriver and easily made a nice hole in the center.
A knife or scissors work just as well.

Share

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Step 6:

6) Finally add your larger gravel or small rocks into the bottle. Again, 1-2 inches is enough.
Your water filter is now complete! Just put the filter over your cup for filtered water.
With the other cup, pour the dirty/muddy water into the filter.

Step 7:

Watch your dirty water come out filtered!
Boil the filtered water to completely rid of all bacteria and such!
Enjoy!

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Simple Water Filter Out of a Waterbottle

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Simple Water Filter Out of a Waterbottle: This Water Filter is very easy and quick to make. Most, if not all the materials can be found in or around your house. A Water Filter can be a necessary survival item if you have no access to clean water.

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#SCIENCE SAVES LIVES

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....WITH A BOTTLE

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WAIT....ROCKS?