At-Home Water Filter

Project Overview: Imagine creating a project that filters out dirty water like how normal water filters we use everyday work. Use common household materials with some additional materials you may not have. WARNING: Do NOT drink the water after filtration, it is not safe to drink!!!

Materials:

• 1 Plastic Bottle

• Cotton Balls or a Coffee Filter

• Gravel

• Sand

• Activated Charcoal (optional)

• Dirty Water

• 1 Jar or Cup

Instructions:

1. Cut off the bottom of a plastic water bottle

2. Turn the bottle upside down so the part with the bottle cap faces downwards and the cut end faces upwards

3. Poke a small hole on the bottle cap if using a coffee filter or remove the cap if using cotton balls to filter the water (this allows the water to flow through the “filter”)

4. Place the upside down bottle over a cup or jar to catch the filtered water

5. Place your cotton balls or coffee filter at the bottle’s neck (Neck = Bottle cap end)

6. Then layer the following in order following your cotton balls/ coffee filter

• Charcoal (optional)

• Sand

• Gravel

7. The previous step may be confusing, when I mean layer, I mean your cotton balls/coffee filter should be closest to the bottle cap end, then stacked on top would be your optional charcoal, then your sand on top of either the filtration or charcoal, and then gravel finally being on top 

8. Now create your dirty water by mixing 2 cups of water with 2-3 spoonfuls of garden soil or potting soil to create polluted water

9. After you have layered your filter materials in the correct order, slowly pour your dirty water into the open top and let it drip through all your layers into the cup

10. Now in your cup, your dirty water should have turned into cleaner water as filtration took place through all the different materials

Explanation:

You may be asking how that dirty, polluted water suddenly becomes cleaner to the naked eye. While after the dirty water dripped through each layer, each layer caught different-sized pieces of dirt and debris particles, by the time the water made it to the cup, the layers caught most of the particles, filtering the water to become cleaner. It is important to understand this does not make water safe to drink, so if trying this experiment at home, no matter how clear the water looks, do not drink it as it is not safe.