SCIENCE FAIRDec. 2009

Biology period 3

Science Fair

MY BIG QUESTION

Can the impurities in water be removed through the process of evaporation making a water purifier?

MY HYPOTHESIS

I predict that the impurities in the water will not be able to withstand the process of evaporation thereby cleansing it.

I predict this because through my research I learned that the impurities of water cannot withstand evaporation.

RESEARCH

One thing that I learned is that evaporation can take place without the sun.

You can use any form of heat as the “sun” Impurities in water cannot withstand the

process of evaporation

MATERIALS

Water Salt Dirt Plastic Wrap 2 Buckets 2 Jars Tape Camera Observations

MY EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE

Put salt water in bottom of a bucket Put a collector jar in center of bucket Cover large bucket with collector jar inside

with plastic wrap Place small stone on top of plastic wrap

directly above collector jar Place bucket under heat lamp (or in heat) Observe

PROCEDURE CON.

After several hours test water in collector jar to see if the impurities are their

Repeat procedure with several kinds of impure water

The water should evaporate into the jar leaving the impurities behind.

CONTROL/VARIABLES

I had NO control/variables in my project.

OBSERVATIONS

I observed the waters every 3-4 hours for 1 day.

The first time that I checked them the water was just starting to evaporate

The 2nd time that I checked them only the water that had been soaking in dirt was working.

After about 6-7 hours I changed the position of the buckets to see if that affected it at all.

After roughly 10 hours I brought the buckets inside to test the water.

DATA

There was 1 ½ cups of water in each bucket. After 3 hours there was no water in the jar,

but there was some drops of water hanging from the plastic wrap.

After 6 hours there was only a few drops of water in the dirt water bucket, but not in the salty water bucket.

After 9 hours (end of experiment), the only jar that had water in it was the dirt water jar.

RESULTS

ANALYSIS OF DATA

I think that the reason that the salt water bucket didn’t work is because of the amount of heat it received. It was in the shade in the beginning of the day while the other bucket was in the sun. then the dirt bucket was in the shade while the salt bucket was in the sun. Doing this might of given the salty water less time to evaporate.

RESULTS

CONCLUSION

I think that this was a good experiment because it tested my hypothesis. My results were pretty accurate, and they matched my research.

RESOURCES

www.education.com www.yahoo.com www.about.com