Week Five (May 1st, 2018 - May 7th, 2018)

      This week we focused on testing our design. In the previous weeks, we drew two different designs that had similar filtration materials. However, one design was condensed and compacted into one two-liter bottle, while the other design was spread out into multiple filtration units. During week two, we decided on the first design, mainly because it fits more with the scenario that we were tasked with in the beginning. We decided that our first layer would be the sand, then charcoal, then legos. Each layer will be funneled into our soda bottle with coffee filter papers. The end of the bottle, where the opening is located will have two filter papers folded into fours, placed on it with a rubber band. Down below, I have made a chart that indicates each trial that we performed and the results associated with it. 

      In this class period, we performed the organic solution testing. This was done with a pink solution created by our Professor Caroline Schauer. This test was primarily done in order to see if our design concept could filter out the bright pink dye to clear water. 

Trial Data

	Sand Mass	Charcoal Mass	Time	PASS OR FAIL
Trial 1 (w/ Filter paper)	120.5 g	3.62 g	10:08	FAIL - No water was filtered
Trial 2 (w/ Filter paper)	60.2 g	2.57 g	15:00	FAIL - Only a few drops were filtered
Trial 3 (w/o Filter paper)	60.4 g	2.0 g	13:00	FAIL - About 2 mL were filtered
Trial 4 (w/ Filter paper)	60.4 g	1.0 g	14:30	FAIL - Little bit of water was filtered

Laurynn is pouring the organic solution in our first trial

The first trial was definitely a learning process for our group. We went to the lab to test our design and during testing, we realized that our design had too many substances within it. So, therefore our first design did not filter any water.

Filtration is slowly occurring in the second trial

After the results of the first trial, we decided to reduce the materials but started with the same testing method by using the filter paper. This time the design filtered out a few drops of water, but it still was not that successful. 

Olivia holding up the bottle in the third trial

In the third trial, we decided to try something completely new. We thought with all of the additional coffee filter papers that that was the sole reason such little was being filtered out. This method worked a little bit better, but still the results were not meeting our standards.

Final trial testing of the organic solution

In our last test, we decided to go back to our original testing methods. We used the same amount of material that we did in the second and third trials. However, we used water to flush out the organic solution. Although that did not drastically change our results, it definitely caused some water to be filtered out a little bit better.