Build Your Own

Water Filter
AT HOME SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
How do you clean dirty water? One way water is cleaned, in nature and by people, is
through filtration. Filtration is the process in which solid particles in a liquid or gas are
removed by the use of a filter material. The filter allows the fluid to pass through but
retains the solid particles.

In this experiment, you will build your own filter to separate different size pollutants
from water.

You Will Need

Utility knife and/or scissors (and an adult)

Rubber band

Cotton ball and coffee filter (paper towels or napkins

work too)

Sand (aquarium sand works great)

Pebbles or gravel, (aquarium gravel works great)

Activated charcoal/carbon (can be found in the fish

section of the pet store)

Dirty water

Small pieces of plastic or paper

Glitter (black pepper, oregano, or similar will work

too)

Food coloring (gelatin powder or fruit punch

powder will work too)

2 cups of tap water

Clear cup or container and spoon to mix dirty water

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
VOCABULARY WORD SEARCH

C U P O L L U T A N T C
U H B A E I P L H H O I
N H A T W C A U R R L N
Q E A R U O A I G E L A
L M W Q C D Y A N L U G
O L N R U T N E F L T R
J A A B E I C R U A A O
K H F I L T R A T I O N
C A Q U I F E R E I N T

Aquifer - An aquifer is a collection of wet, underground rocks that allows water to pass through it
slowly. A well can be used to pump water from an aquifer so people can use the water for drinking,

watering crops, and other purposes.

Filtration- Filtration is the process in which solid particles in a liquid or gas are removed by the use of a
filter material.

Organic- Organic matter (or organic material) is matter that has come from a recently living organism.
It is capable of decay, or is the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds.

Charcoal- Activated charcoal, or activated carbon, readily adsorbs a wide range of small, dissolved or
suspended solids in water. If you use a water filter pitcher or have a water filter on your faucet, fridge,

or fish tank, it likely has activated charcoal in it.

Pollutant- A substance that makes something (like air or water) impure and often unsafe.

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
Before the experiment
Think about how and why water gets filtered. Our drinking water

comes from natural water sources like lakes, rivers, and aquifers.

Where does YOUR drinking water come from?

This question is specific to your home. Find out where your tap water comes from. Do you have a well? Does it

______________________________________________________________
come from a nearby lake? Is there a water treatment facility that cleans the water before it comes to your tap?

What kind of materials need to be filtered or removed from your water before it

reaches your sink? Think about what might be in lakes and rivers that you wouldn't

want in your drinking water.

______________________________________________________________
Natural water may have things like rocks, dirt, organic matter like leaves and animal waste, dissolved

nutrients, pollution like human created trash, chemicals, etc.

In this experiment, the filter we build has several different layers of material. When

treating our drinking water and wastewater, treatment facilities filter out larger solids

first and smaller solids later. If they are not removed, large solids can break down and

become smaller, more difficult to remove, particles. To remove larger solids first,

would you filter your dirty water through rocks or sand first? Why?

You would filter the water through rocks first. Since the rocks are larger than the sand particles, the
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spaces between the rocks are also larger, allowing medium and small sized pollutants to pass through
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but filtering out large sized pollutants.
______________________________________________________________

Name 3 examples of filtration that you can find in your home.

Coffee filter, water filter on faucet or fridge, strainer for pasta and vegetables,
1)_____________________________________________________________
sink drain cover, vacuum cleaner filter, air filter, swimming pool filter, fish tank
2)_____________________________________________________________
water filter, a slotted spoon
3)____________________________________________________________

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Build Your Own Water Filter

Step 1. Have an adult help

you cut your bottle in half.

Invert the top half of the bottle

and place it in the bottom half.

We will use the top half of the

bottle to create the filter and

the bottom half to catch the

filtered water.

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 Build Your Own Water Filter

Step 2.
A) Remove the cap from your

bottle and place a cotton ball

inside.

B) Fold a coffee filter in half and

then in half again. Cover the

mouth of the bottle with the

folded filter and secure it with a

rubber band. Set the top part

back inside of the bottom part

of the bottle.

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
Step 3.
Build your filter! Sketch

out your layers here.

What order will you put

your materials if you

want to filter solids from

largest to smallest?

Material
Pebbles Layer 1

Sand Layer 2

Activated Carbon
Layer 3

Materials
Pebbles Activated Carbon

Sand

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
Step 4. Create your dirty water
Add two cups of tap water to a clear cup or container. To the water, add

pollutants that are large, medium and small size particles. Mix well with a spoon.

Large Pollutants
Add torn pieces of paper, confetti, or cut up bits of plastic to represent

larger matter that you may find in water. Which of the following large size

pollutants may need to be filtered from water?

A. Leaves B. Rocks and pebbles

C. Man-made pollution (trash) D. All of the above

Medium Pollutants
Add glitter, pepper or another spice to represent medium size pollutants.

While these look very small, even smaller pollutants can be found in water!

Many medium and small sized pollutants found in water are made of

organic matter, give 3 examples of organic matter that might be found in

polluted water.

Leaves, sticks, plant material,

Bacteria, fungus, algae,

Animal waste, insects

Small Pollutants
Add food coloring, gelatin powder, sugar or fruit punch powder to

represent small size pollutants. Many small pollutants are so small they

can't be seen by the naked eye! Which of the following would not be

considered a small size pollutant?

A. Dissolved nutrients (like salts) B. Chemicals

C. Micro-organisms (like bacteria) D. Gummy worms

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
Before you filter your "dirty" water, predict which

"pollutant" will be most difficult to remove from

the water. Why do you think so?

___________________________
Small and dissolved pollutants will be difficult to

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filter due to their size, they are able to pass through

many types of filter material.

Step 5.
Filter your water! Mix well

and pour HALF of your

"dirty water" into your

filter. Set the other half to

the side to compare to

your filtered water.

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
How does your filtered water look compared to the water you didn't
filter? Sketch and describe your water before and after filtration.

Before Filtration After Filtration

_______________________
Many large and medium _______________________
Large and medium pollutants

_______________________
pollutants. Small pollutants
_______________________
have been filtered out. Only

have made water a different some of the small pollutants

_______________________
color, cloudy _______________________
have been removed.

Was your prediction correct? Which pollutant was the most difficult to

filter?

___________________________________________________
Small and dissolved pollutants were only partially filtered out of the water.

What is one way you could improve your filter?

___________________________________________________
Add another filter material for small particles. More activated carbon or

another material.

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 Build Your Own Water Filter
After the experiment

Try designing your own water filter using any combination

and quantity of filtering materials you think would work best!

Paper towels
Cheesecloth
Sponge
Rocks
Dried beans
Uncooked pasta
Pebbles
Sand
Activated charcoal
Cotton balls
Socks
Mesh or screen
Clay

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