NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The information in this document was accurate as of the original publication date.

Audience: Educators & Students
Grades: 3-5


This lesson will help your students answer the question:
What can I do to make clean water?

In this lesson, students will
-- Design and build their own water filtering system.
-- Collect data to compare water before and after filtering.
-- Develop a conclusion based upon the results of this experiment.
-- Compare individual results to class results to look for patterns.

Cleaning Water Activity
>  For educators [722KB PDF file]
>  en español

>  For students [315KB PDF file]
>  en español

The Cleaning Water Activity is the lesson that accompanies Where Would a Space Explorer Find Water and Oxygen?, one of the topics in the 21st Century Explorer series. Each exploration topic in NASA's Kids Science News Network™ 21st Century Explorer series has a 30-second newsbreak videoclip, online Web explanation (background information), hands-on activity guide based on national education standards, online glossary and quiz.

All components of Where Would a Space Explorer Find Water and Oxygen? are available on the 21st Century Explorer topic page  →.

Also in this series:
Those Who Have Come Before Me Activity
Food For Spaceflight Activity
Get a Leg Up Activity
Speed It Up Activity
Designing a Crew Exploration Vehicle Activity
What's Hidden Inside Activity
Moon Mining Activity
Let's Investigate Mars Activity
Making Regolith Activity
Ray Shielding Activity
Cool Suits Activity