Outdoor STEM: Water Filter Challenge - Materials and Their Properties

This STEM activity gets your students looking at the properties of materials as they are challenged to test their survival skills by getting the dirt out of water using only natural materials and a drinks bottle (they need to design and make their own natural filters!).

To set up the challenge: - Put students into teams of 2 or 3. - Give them the instructions to read. - Give each group a good-sized plastic bottle with four small holes in the bottom (a hot metal skewer is great for this). - Tell them to go into your outdoor space and make their filters. - Test the filters by pouring muddy water in and seeing how much cleaner the water that comes out is. As well as leaves, sticks, stones etc. in your outdoor space, for this activity it is good for them to have access to both sand and gravel.

Once they have completed the activity they can fill in the evaluation sheet which encourages them to think scientifically about what they have done. Extension: You can then move onto looking at real filters and seeing how they work with different liquids – will it separate salt from water?

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