I AM THE WEATHER MAN

For my final action project in my Water class, we are futuristic weathermen, and we have to predict the weather in 2100. In our third unit, we learned about clouds, how to predict the weather, and we even went to a weather exhibit. Enjoy!

Water filters- Are they useful?

For my second unit of Water which is a class where we talk about science and math, we had to build a water filter and test the pH before and after it was filtered to see if the filter made the water any better or worse. The materials I used where fish filter, gravel, sand, carbon infused fish board, activated carbon, and a coffee filter. I went to Petsmart to get these materials.

R.G(2016) Filter Sketch 

The reason I chose the bottle I did was because it compacts the materials together so no water can just go straight through the sides and not get filtered. The filter worked by allowing the water go through different fish filters, and when it passes through the various layers. The layers pull out smaller particulates from the water.  For example, I have an activated carbon infused fish filter that the water is going to go through. The activated carbon fish filter and the carbon will draw out the smaller particulates because carbon is a natural filter. This filter was built by first putting a fish filter at the bottom. I then put a coffee filter to hold activated carbon which is the next layer and then I put a carbon infused fish filter to have a better filter layer. Lastly, I put sand and gravel and an additional piece of fish filter to grab any other particulates. My filter is similar to groundwater filtration because I have some of the same layers. Some of those layers are soil, sand, and gravel.

R.G (2016) Water Filter 

After filtering the water with my system, it looked clearer, but there were still particulates at the bottom.  It did smell slightly cleaner, but when I took a sip of the water, it tasted like regular tap water with a rather nasty aftertaste.  The water did not have a smooth taste like bottled artesian or spring water. The water I filtered was Chicago river water; its pH is 3.9, but after my filter, it was 4.0.  The H+ level of the water before filtering was 0.000125. The H+ after filtering was 0.0001. The difference is 1.25. The pH scale goes from zero to fourteen zero being very acidic and fourteen being very basic. Seven is neutral, so my filtered water was a 4.0 which is acidic very acidic.

R.G(2016) p.H Scale Sketch

The World's Water

For my first unit of water, I learned about how much water is wasted and how little clean water is available. We did a lot of things in this class- we carried water from the Chicago River, and we made posters that show how much water countries use. I never knew how much water I consumed or how much water other countries consumed until I took this course. This course is an eye-opener because I now have an idea of how much water I use in a day. Taking showers and washing clothes are daily tasks I do not think about regarding water consumption. It blew my mind when I found out that I use 87. 39 gallons of water a day. Moreover, in comparison the average Japanese person uses 99 gallons per day and the average American uses about 151 gallons a day. With my 87 gallons of usage, 49% of my water usage comes from hygiene, 44% from drinking, 25% from washing, and 17% from flushing the toilet.

I realized it would be such a hustle to get water from my nearest source. I do not live by the Chicago River, and I live west of Lake Michigan. It is 4.3 miles to my nearest water source, and that is about a one-hour walk. If I were to commute both ways by foot, it would be about 2 hours just to get 5 gallons of water. I would have to take approximately 17 trips to the water source just to get water that is not even clean. I would have to clean it first; then I would be able to drink it and use it. These are just some of the immediate water problems. My experience carrying water was very hard for me. I helped some friends move about 200 lbs of water, and it was tiring. Water is about 8 pounds per gallon and at 5 gallons that are 40lbs. If you fill up five gallons five times, that's 200lbs. We had to take multiple stops along the way because of the weight.

R.G.2016  The world's water. Water poster