Adaptive WaTER Laboratory for K-12 outreach on sustainable water use

Abstract

Over one billion people worldwide do not have access to a safe, reliable source of drinking water. Of these, up to five million will die each year of waterborne diseases due to unclean water sources and poor sanitation and hygiene1. As part of a capstone senior design project, an educational device was created to teach students in developed and developing nations about the environmental impacts of water contamination and to promote sustainable water utilization. To accomplish this goal an interactive, educational, cost-effective water purification system, known as the Adaptive Water Treatment for Education and Research Laboratory (Adaptive WaTER Lab), was developed. The design includes six different purification methods contained in individual housings that can be connected and reordered to create multiple purification solutions. The purification methods selected for this project include: sediment filtration, carbon filtration, chemical disinfection, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, and ultraviolet light disinfection. Accompanying educational materials include lessons on contaminants, background information on the methods, seven laboratory experiments and study questions. The Lab has been demonstrated to over 300 students at several Houston-area schools (3rd-12 th grade), thus disseminating knowledge on sustainable water use while receiving valuable feedback to improve the design. In addition to interactive demonstrations by students from Rice University, the system has been independently used by high school students in Houston for an Earth Day presentation. The use of the Adaptive WaTER Lab for an independent project, supervised by the authors and carried out by an underrepresented minority high school student, will be discussed. The student determined the effectiveness of the various purification techniques for removing contaminants ranging from dirt and sediment to chlorine and bacteria. Also, the student compared the various techniques based on the rates of production of clean water, operation costs, energy efficiencies and sustainability. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.