Student Project

Students are required to construct a water filtration system using an assortment of materials decided upon by the students and provided by the teacher. Students will use scientific knowledge, technological design, economics and biological benefits to construct a filter that purifies water to the greatest possible extent.

Objectives

The project is designed as a collaborative effort, where students are required to produce a final working product, a home water filtration system. In the process they mimic real-life research, design, production, marketing, and sales teams responsible for producing and selling a product.

After completing this project, students will be able to:

• design an economical water filtration system for home use;
• select materials needed for the water filter;
• determine costs for those materials;
• determine the cost of building their filter;
• draw a blueprint of their filter;
• discover what needs to be filtered out of the water;
• build a working model of their water filter;
• discuss why water must be filtered;
• discuss and determine how impurities get into water;
• develop a presentation designed to sell the water filter;
• examine water samples from home using water test kits; and
• work in small groups.

Sample Activity

Students, in groups of three or four, will create a list of materials for their water filter, a blueprint of the filter and the filter itself. This activity will cover several class periods. The first class will be dedicated to introducing the topic of water filtration and subsequent periods will be dedicated to group work on creating water filtration systems. You must also create a persuasive advertisement and prepare and present a sales pitch for your filter. Your filter must be cost effective.

Sample Performance Assessment

ADVERTISEMENT (DESCRIPTION) – 70 POINTS

POINTS

Advertisement completely describes the purpose of this filter or filtration system. For what purpose would someone want to buy this product? (10 points)	_______
Advertisement completely describes what the filtration system is able to remove from water, including the method of filtration. (20 points)	_______
A blueprint design of the filtration system successfully describes how the system is constructed. (20 points)	_______
Advertisement completely describes the efficacy of the filters used. How often will the filters need to be changed? (10 points)	_______
Advertisement completely describes the flow rate of water through the filtration system. How much water will be purified in a given period of time? (10 points)	_______
PRESENTATION (SALES PITCH) – 50 POINTS
Group successfully pitches the filtration system to either potential stockholders or consumers. To whom is the system being sold? What can the system filter? How much will the system cost? (15 points)	_______
Group successfully demonstrates how the system works. (25 points)	_______
Group successfully answers questions from potential stockholders or consumers. (10 points)	_______
BUDGET - 30 POINTS
Cost of materials used is comprehensively detailed. (20 points) Budget exceeded by: 5 points or less = -5 points 10 points or less = -10 points greater than 10 points = -15 points	_______
Budget comprehensively describes other costs involved in the production, distribution, marketing and sales of the water filtration system. (10 points)	_______
TOTAL POINTS	___/150

Math, Science, Technology and Everyday Connections

This water filtration project makes connections to a variety of MST discipline areas.

These include math, biology, chemistry and physics. In addition, it is applicabe to real life.

There are three primary mathematics connections to the water filtration project. First, students will be required to figure out if their filter is economical for the home. In designing their filter students will have to take the costs of materials required and their useful lives. Students will also be required to figure out the flow rate of their filter once it is built. Finally, scale drawing could be introduced in the context of blueprint design if time and interest permit.

The water filtration project touches on high school biology. Students must utilize a filter that is able to remove microorganisms. Also, students must include a discussion on the origins of the impurities their filter removes. The filtration project is a perfect starting point for any discussion dealing with pollution. Students will need to develop an understanding of the inorganic chemistry that is occurring in their filtration system. An understanding of topics such as chemical reactions, stoichiometry, ions, solubility, and precipitation will be needed to successfully complete the project.

Water filtration is a real life problem. It is important to drinking water, photography, kidney dialysis, and pharmaceutical production.

Instructional Design/ Methods and Strategies

The water filtration MST project is designed to develop student abilities in a number of disciplines and skill areas. Students are presented with the problem of impure home water, and must participate in an inquiry process geared towards solving the problem. To succeed, students must develop a working understanding of filtration, the processes which pollute and purify tap water, and the skills necessary to successfully produce and market their solution to polluted tap water problem. Learning is an integrative process. Skills and knowledge from a variety of content areas are necessary to answer many questions. Students will understand this concept after completing this MST water filtration project.

They will be placed in groups of 3 to 4 and challenged to design a filter that will filter out macroscopic impurities from a water sample. The students will simultaneously draw a rough draft of a blueprint for their filter. The students will give the teacher a list of necessary supplies that will be subsequently supplied. A cost list for each filter will then be determined. The cost of the filter must remain below a preset level. If the students overspend, they will lose points on the design portion of their grade. Once the supplies are made available, the groups will construct a working model of their filter. A presentation then must be developed with an emphasis on selling the filter to a town board or individual households. In the presentation the students must address the cost of the filter, the cost of maintenance, ease of maintenance, efficacy of the filter, and how the filter performs. The students will be graded on several aspects including completeness of the project and presentation, filter performance, filter/maintenance cost, and participation.

This project is easily modified for older and younger children by varying the complexity of the project. With older students, chemical filtration and microscopic filtration can be included. With younger students, a small set of filters can be supplied, with a cost for each filter already determined by the teacher. At any level this is an exciting hands-on project that will bring in many concepts from math, science, and technology as well as real life societal issues.

Cross- and Interdisciplinary Links

This project has relevance to many other academic areas. These include economics, physics, social studies and computer technology. Students will learn what it takes to produce an economically successful water filtration system. They come up with an effective and efficient way to filter water. Students will look at the design of some filtration plants using the Internet. They will explore water treatment plants throughout the world and in their neighborhood.

Gender & Ethnicity Issues

We are attempting to have equal participation for males and females in this project by assigning each student a specific job in the project. (This is up to the teacher. If you feel that the females in class are not participating as much as the males for any reason, you can assign each person their own job to makes sure each person is doing equal work.) Overall, students will all have to collaborate and work together to complete their project successfully. Females and males will be exposed to many academic disciplines. Students will also be able to see the real life connection between water filtration and everyday life. Students from other countries may be able to tell us how water is/isn’t treated in their country and the effects of this on lifestyle.

Science and MST Standards Addressed

This project addresses the national science standards (1-7) and the New York State MST standards (1, 3-7).

Implementation Plan

This MST project will be introduced as a culminating activity on a water pollution unit, to be taught in the latter half of the year in eighth grade classes at I.S. 131, the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School in Chinatown, New York. These students are currently studying Earth Science. It can be part of environmental science section of the Earth Science curriculum. The targeted students do have special needs as some of the classes are transitional ESL classes and there are many students that have limited English proficiency. The topic must be introduced slowly, with great care given to defining new words and all scientific words. These students often learn best from direct hands-on projects, thereby eliminating the stresses of trying to learn complicated scientific language as well as English at the same time.

A few short lectures on water purity should precede the project. In these lectures basic water chemistry and human uses of water should be discussed. The water cycle should also be reviewed. Some water filters could be modeled, but this gives the students a temptation to copy these filters. A lab on water purity should also be performed. In these labs, students bring in water from various sources and test for ammonia, nitrate, nitrate, pH, etc. These water test kits can be purchased from any scientific supply house. After completing this preparatory work, the students are ready to design the water filter.

Evaluation/Assessment Plan

This project will be assessed using a point system that measures students’ ability to apply what they have learned to produce an everyday product that is cost effective. Students must also persuade an audience that their product is a viable one. The success of this project will be determined by student success in meeting these requirements.