Water Filter

In this project our class was challenged with constructing a water filter that is cost effective, reliable, and obviously that could clean out any chemicals or other debris in water found around our school. My group had a lot of trial and error throughout this project. We went through 3 prototypes and many ideas about that type of filter would be the best to clean the water from the San Marin pond. 

     In our first prototype, we thought to go with a standard water filter. It consisted of a layer of rocks, to catch the large debris like the moss from the pond, then there was a layer of sand which caught suspended particles left over. Next was a layer of charocol. This material absorbs contaminants in the water and brings them to the surface of itself without removing essential minerals. Lastly, there was 2 coffee filters on the bottom which caught any debris the rocks may have missed. We thought this first prototype would work with no error because, well almost every other group was doing the same thing. It actually did work to an extent, but did not give us the results we wanted. we found that the bigger particles were completely gone which was great, but the smaller particles were still left in the filtered water. After completing testing, we noticed that sometimes the pH actually went up when the filter was used. This may be because it was unclean, but just in case we wanted to update our design. We chose to lower the pH by adding a small amount of lemon juice to the water, which will also help preserve it. This will be included in a test kit if we make one, along with a pH tester to make sure it's necessary.

     For our second prototype we changed our entire thought process. We did some brainstorming to determine what is the most cost effective and renewable way to clean water especially for people who live in developing countries. Then we thought of the sun's energy. What if we could make a filter that used the sun to clean chemicals out of the water. We came up with a design in which the pond water in container 1 would get heated by the sun and the steam produced would travel through a laminated folder pathway into container 2. This would solve the issue of the remaining small particles because the left over debris wouldn't be taken by the sun. Our design was actually very solid, but we left it out over a windy, rainy weekend and we know it was 1 of two things. It was either blown away or thrown away. We weren't able to receive results from the prototype since it obviously gone by the time we came to check, so we don't know how well it worked.

     For our third and eventual used prototype, we constructed a similar build to prototype number 2, but this time we actually got our results back. This one was constructed the exact same as the 2nd prototype, but instead of a laminated folder, we used tinfoil. We thought the water would be able to pass through the tinfoil more cleanly than across a laminated folder. Through further testing we figured out that our newly cleaned water was almost drinkable and only cost us about $2.50 which was amazing. 

     Lastly, we decided that in order to make our water fully drinkable, we needed to remove the bigger debris from the water, so we combined water filter number 1 and number 3. This took out the large particles in the first filter and then the chemicals and bacteria in the next one. Our water filter came to a total cost of around $5.15 which was very good.

Filter 1-

Filter 2-

Filter 3-

Reflection: One thing I learned about myself during this project was that I actually am a very good worker if I just apply myself enough. During this project I had group members that did not care too much about their own work so I had to step up and take a leadership role to make sure our project was in on time and the best work it could be. 

A thing I excelled at during this project was being a good group member. I think I was a very valuable part to this group because I demonstrated hard work and good collaboration. 

I need to work on being more well rounded. I think if I had helped with each individual part of the project I would have been even more useful.

I also need to work on staying fully on task. While I did this most of the time, toward the end of the project I became restless and wanted it to be over.