Science Fair 2007:
Clean Up Your Act
Overview/Reason for Project:
Water that has become contaminated can often be filtered to clean it up. Consider an aquarium tank. The water is not changed very often. Instead, it is constantly filtered through a filter medium, such as activated charcoal or angel hair. In an aquarium setup, activated charcoal filters soak op some of the undesirable chemicals in the water. They also trap minute dirt particles. Filters using angel hair remove large particles and provide a home for certain bacteria, which cause chemicals in the water to be less toxic to the fish.
Water can travel faster through some filtering materials than others. If a material is denser, water will travel slower through it, but perhaps the water is more thoroughly cleaned. Hypothesize that filter materials that filter water will not clean the water as well.
Materials:
* Food coloring
* Activated carbon
* Lava rock
* Sand
* Several coffee filters
* 1 mason jar
* Stand to hold pop bottle “hose”
* Funnel
* Paper towel (unlimited supply)
* Water
* Kitchen measuring cup with pouring spout
* Spoon
* Masking tape and pen
* Wristwatch with a second hand/stopwatch
* White sheet of paper
Procedure:
1. Place 4 test tubes in the test tube rack
2. Set a funnel on the ring stand and position it so that the test tube rack can be slid into position underneath the funnel to catch the filtered water in the desired test tube
3. Stick a piece of masking tape onto each test tube, numbering them 1 – 4, to indicate what each test tube will hold.
4. Fill the kitchen measuring cup with water
5. Add four drops of dark food coloring (red, blue, or green) to the water and stir
{Some of the filter material you will be testing requires a screen to keep it from falling through the hole in the funnel. A piece of cheesecloth (for strength), together with a paper coffee filter (to hold tiny particles), should contain all filtering material. These will not contribute to filtering out any of the color in the water. Neverless, to make the experiment valid, place a lining of cheesecloth and paper coffee filter at the bottom of the filter for each material being tested, even if unnecessary.
Some of the test material might need to be rinsed so that it does not add any color of its own to the results. Run clear water through the setup to flush it. Let dry before experimenting.}
6. Line the funnel with the cheesecloth and the coffee filter
7. Pour test material into the funnel
8. Position a test tube under the funnel (4th test tube used as a measuring device as a control for the color comparison later)
9. By filling the fourth test tube with colored water, you will know how much water to pour into the funnel without overflowing the receiving test tube
10. Fill the measuring test tube with colored water and pour it into the funnel
11. Catch the filtered water in a test tube
12. Use a stopwatch or the second hand of a wristwatch to determine the amount of time it takes to drain all of the water through the filter
13. Repeat for each filtration item.
any ways to streamline, make more scientifically correct, and so on?
Thanksdani