Thursday, October 25, 2012

Water Filtration

Today we went to the Landrum Library's home school class.  Our topic was on water filtration.  Mrs. Nancy had all the supplies and we brought the water.  I had collected a gallon of water from our fire pit and pool.

Egee was a little skeptical about filtering water for fear she may have to drink it.  I assured her that Mrs. Nancy had no intention of making them drink the filtered water.

For our morning science lesson, I had discussed the scientific method with the children.  We related it to our everyday life.  Now I got to see if any of our discussion stuck in their brain, as we conducted the filtration experiment.  Low and behold it did!  It makes me appreciate how much my children do retain, when it feels at the moment of teaching it, they are not paying it much attention.

Mrs. Nancy showing the children the materials they will be using.

Deciding what materials they would like to use first.

Putting the mesh into the bottom of the container.


Next, putting cotton balls on top of the mesh.

Seeing how much the cotton balls and mesh will filter.



Gravel has been added on top of the cotton balls.

The water is still green and cloudy.

Adding sand on top of the gravel.


The water is a little clearer.


Now we have added another layer of cotton, gravel, and sand on top of the exiting filtration layers.

Trying it out.

The water is clear!

We had a good time with Mrs. Nancy and learned a lot about filtering water!  We can't wait until next month's program.