The Polluted Water STEM Challenge

Water is an amazing molecule that has properties that make it vital for living things and for supporting natural systems.  For example, the polar properties of water enable it to dissolve a wide range of substances.  This allows water to be an excellent mover of key substances in our rivers, lakes, and oceans as well as inside the bodies of all living things.   We all need water to survive.

While water is a necessity for survival, it often becomes polluted by various human activities.  For example, water is frequently contaminated by human sewage that isn’t treated before being released into the environment.   Untreated wastewater contaminates lakes, streams, and rivers, and drinking  it can cause a variety of diseases including typhoid fever and cholera.   It is estimated that wastewater related diseases kill over 3.5 million people each year.  

In the STEM Challenge,the students’ task is to build a filtration system that can be used by a the people in a small town with a polluted water supply. Students begin by testing and evaluating a variety of materials that they think might work as effective filters. Once their analysis is complete, they use their results to design a filter that will remove as much pollution as possible.