My Capstone Project is complete.
Overall, the results were roughly what I would have predicted. Interestingly, no bacteria were visible using my microscope, this could simply be because there was no bacteria on the slides or that my microscope failed to view them. The physical filters performed the best overall on average while the chemical treatment did not remove particles from the water significantly. However, I was surprised to see that the cheaper physical filter (the Sawyer Mini ~$30) performed better than the MSR filter (~$90). The control had an average of 10 particulates per slide while the Coleman chemical treatment had an average of 9.4 particulates per slide. It is worth noting that the Coleman treatment is designed to kill bacteria, not remove particulates, so this was somewhat expected. As my microscope didn’t see any bacteria, I can’t attest to its sterilization ability. The physical filters performed much better, with the Sawyer and MSR units averaging 1.2 and 2.8 particulates respectively.
To improve the experiment for the future, I would change some things.
I would use a better quality microscope and laboratory-grade equipment to ensure more accurate results. I couldn’t make out any live bacteria in any of my samples. And it was difficult to differentiate between particulates and air bubbles trapped within the microscope slide. I would also consider switching back to the P&G chemical treatment I planned to use but couldn’t due to a lack of supply. This treatment has a coagulant that would make it more comparable to the physical filter devices. Finally, I would look to run tests for chemicals/pesticides or other dissolved materials to see if any of the methods had any effect despite claiming not to.
While this wasn’t part of my original study, I allowed a jar of untreated pond water and a jar of water treated with the MSR filter to sit open next to each other for a month. This revealed an interesting result. The jar of untreated water had developed a slightly green tint, indicating there were some biological contaminants in the sample. The filtered jar displayed no such green tint, indicating that any living cells had been filtered out.
Here is a photo of the two jars originally, the right jar has been filtered.
Here are the jars after a month undisturbed, the left jar was filtered a month earlier.
I learned a lot about conducting research throughout this project. The experience I’ve gained will be extremely useful if I decide to pursue research opportunities in the future. It feels odd that this is the final step to earning my STEM scholars designation, it’s two years in the making and yet I feel as if I just started college yesterday. I’m very grateful for the opportunities that STEM Scholars have provided me with so far and look forward to what lies ahead.
To close, I’ll include some photos of my project.
The MSR Filter:
The Sawyer Mini Filter:
The Coleman Chemical Treatment:
A slide filtered with the Sawyer Mini:
Versus a slide of water treated with the Coleman Chemical Treatment:
