1. Water Purification HKR 3220 Conner Stevens Unit 19 Lesson
7
2. What is water purification? Water purification is the
process of removing the chemicals and microbes that are in the
water that can cause illness. An example of an illness that you can
get from not filtering your water could be beaver fever, etc. Even
if the water looks clean and clear it doesnt mean you can drink it.
There are several ways that you can filter your water before you
drink it. There are some devices that you could use to help clean
your water, boiling water could also help kill bacteria as well and
some people even use tablets in their water.
3. Equipment There are several things you will need if you are
going to filter water. Stoves and fuel, water filters, iodine
tablets, chlorine treatment, more purification systems, information
cards describing sources of water contamination, etc.
4. Risk Management When you are boiling water you should make
sure that the water is completely boiled to kill the bacteria and
microbes. As a teacher I would make sure that I demonstrate what to
do before I let my students do it on their own. If you use
chemicals to treat water you should make sure that nobody is
allergic or sensitive to anything that you use.
5. Important teaching cues I would make sure the students know
that you should never drink water from a unknown source if its no
purified. If you drink unfiltered water you may have many digestive
problems as well. Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium are the main
disease causing organisms in the wilderness. It could take days for
signs or symptoms of drinking unpurified water to appear. Some
signs that you should look out for are abdominal pain, severe
bloating, stomach cramps, etc.
6. Three main ways to make water safe 1. Boiling This technique
could be good if you are in the woods and dont have any other
methods available at that time and want some drinking water
fast.
7. 2. Filtration In my opinion and many others this is the best
way to filter water to make sure its suitable to drink, etc. This
technique is also very effective and it doesnt take much time at
all.
8. 3. Chemical treatment This method could be effective as well
but there is a lot of concern on this topic because there could be
some health affects from the tablets and there is a lot of
chemicals involved.
9. Water Purification Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5FeQUWUK8
10. Assessing water purity Running water is typically better
than still water, water that has been coming out of the ground from
a spring is usually more pure than water that has been running over
the ground, avoid algae in water, look for water that is clear,
avoid water in marshes and swamps.
11. Pollutants Stay away from water that is near roads,
vehicles spill out pollutants that could be very harmful and toxic.
Dont drink water that runs by any factories or industrys because
they could also be very toxic to humans. Never drink any water that
may contain pesticides or fertilizers. They could be very harmful
to the human body.
12. References Redmond, K., Foran, A., & Dwyer, S. (2010).
Quality lesson plans for outdoor education. Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics.