The kids in ES recently created their own water filters using items present in nature. We have been studying water pollution and wanted them to have an idea of how a filter can work to make water “clean” with “dirty” stuff like sand, gravel, dirt, etc.

We weren’t sure how well it would actually work but as you can probably tell from the picture…some of the kids made some pretty clean water…..probably cleaner than you can get out of some of the water fountains around here.

The first water sample in the cuvette on the left is the polluted water we provided. Each of the following samples are from actual student filters. The last sample on the image is Distilled Water which was our control at 0% polluted. Congrat’s to Trey Cleveland for eliminating 92% of the pollution in his sample using his filter design.

Students used sand, rocks, gravel, leaves, grass, hay, etc. Each made their own design and then tested it. We provided a sample of water which we made “dirty” by adding food coloring to simulate dissolved particles. They passed the water through the filter, collected the resulting filtrate and used the colorimeter to compare to the original sample.

We had a ball and hopefully learned a lot too….

To learn more about water filters and how they are being provided to developing countries, visit the following websites about the LifeStraw and the BioSand water filter.

LifeStraw- a personal water filter- for about $10, you can give clean water to a child for a year!
LifeStraw Website

BioSand Water Filter- a community filter which can produce about 20 gallons in an hour. For under 100 dollars you can help give clean water to an entire community. BioSand Water Filter -The solution

BioSand Water Filter- the technology explained

With help from the UGA pathology department, MCHS botany students were able to locate and photograph scale bugs using motic cameras and microscopes!

the students at MCHS used motic cameras and microscopes to find nematodes in soil.

using the pGLO plasmid from Bio-rad, Genetics students at MCHS transformed bacteria to make them glow under UV light.

Using the Compass on an iphone to determine the exact placement of the solar house to get the most sun exposure….who says iphones are disruptive to instruction?