How to Clean Dirty Water

Title: How to Clean Dirty Water
Description: Learn why clean water is so important and how you can make your very own water filtration system.
Season: All year
Length of Activity: 45 minutes
Age: 5-adult
Button: Start the Activity

How to Clean Dirty Water
Take a second to think of all the things you need in order to survive.
Food? Air? Water? Your favorite toys? Are some of those things just a little more important for survival than the others?

According to some, water is the most important resource on our planet.
Not only are our bodies made up of approximately 60% water, but our cells can’t live without it. And that’s not all, water also helps with dozens of other jobs like regulating your body temperature, breaking down your food so it can metabolize properly, flushing waste out through the kidneys, forming saliva, lubricating joints, and even acting as a shock absorber for the brain and spinal cord!

Unfortunately, much of the way that today’s society lives contributes to the pollution of our waterways, making it more and more difficult for animals, plants and humans, all of which all depend on clean water, to both grow and survive.

That’s why today we are going to learn about how to clean dirty water with an at-home filtering system.

*It’s important to make note that this is not actually a strong enough filter to be able to drink dirty water. It is a model of what water treatment plants do on a larger scale.

Supplies and Tools needed:
● Large plastic soda bottle
● 2 Cotton balls
● 1 Cup of sand
● 1 Cup of rock/gravel
● 1 Cup of activated charcoal. You can buy this at pet stores or online here.
● 1 Pair of scissors
● 1 Plastic cup
● 1 Mallet and a plastic bag (optional)
● 1 Liter of muddy water (make your own by mixing dirt or mud into water)

Getting started

Step 1: Cut off the bottom of the plastic bottle with scissors (keep the cap on).

Step 2: Stuff cotton balls into the neck of the bottle and set it on top of your plastic cup.

Step 3: Crush the activated charcoal if it isn’t already and pour it into the bottle.

Step 4: Next add sand to the bottle.

Step 5: Then add the gravel.

Step 6: Loosen the cap and then gently add muddy water into the top and observe what happens as the muddy water is filtered through your system and drips out into your cup.

Taking it Deeper
It’s important to know how to clean dirty water, but much of the pollution in our waterways could be avoided.

What could you do personally and as a family, to reduce the amount of pollution?
Hold a short discussion and then watch this video to see if you thought of something they didn’t.

Further Reading
Here are several different short articles about water and water quality. Or, if you’d prefer picture books, here is a compiled  list of 24 wonderfully beautiful books all about water.

Further Watching
Here is a super  informative video about what happens to our water when it goes to a water treatment plant.