In this project our goal was to use chemistry to take a sample of dirty contaminated water and produce a final product that was safe for human consumption. That in mind, we had to use safe chemicals and practices to purify and decontaminate the water. Our group modeled our idea off of a previous product used in third world countries with limited access to clean drinking water and it and breaking it down it works in 3 steps. First, you pour a powder in that has 2 main parts in it, a coagulate and a disinfectant, stir for 30 seconds, let it sit for 3-5 minutes and settle, then filter the contaminants.
Content/Vocabulary:
Solution- A mixture of two or more substances. Solvent- The substance that does the dissolving in a solution. Water is the most common and often most effective solvent. Solute- The substance that is dissolved into the solvent. Solubility- Measure of how well a solute can be dissolved into solvent. Ph- Measure of acidity of a solution. Scaled based on 1-14. 1 being very acidic and 14 being very basic, 7 is pure. That being said, our water had a ph level of 6.0. Not dangerously acidic but not enjoyable. Coagulate- In our example we used ferrous sulfate to coagulate or attach to dirt particles and attract to one another to make the particle bigger making them easier to filter Disinfectant- In our example we used calcium chloride to disinfect or to kill any bacteria that we couldn't simply filter out.
Reflection
This project was really tough because I was dealing with migraines so I was in and out of class but when I was there I did my best to contribute my best. I feel that our group challenged ourselves with the route we took instead of using evaporation or something more reliable. We had to do more research and more testing and unfortunately we missed our mark a little bit but that leave us room for improvement in the future. This project I struggled with leadership, I needed to speak up a little bit more because I waited too long to and then we were pressed for time to finish, but hindsight is always 20/20 so it was a good learning experience for me. On the next project I will definitely work on my time management as its something I can always improve.