I believe the boiling water will be the most effective way to kill bacteria but won’t filter out the sediments like the other filter which will not kill bacteria. I think that the tap water will have the least amount of bacteria and sediments, The horse trough water will have the most bacteria and sediments, the cotton filter will have the most amount of bacteria along with the horse trough water but will have the second least amount of sediments and the boiled water will have the second least amount of bacteria and the combined  filters will have the second least amount of bacteria and sediments.

For my reaserch I needed to understand how to use a patri dish and I needed to know the boiling point of water as well as the tempature where bactiria is killed. I found  the boiling tempature of water is 100 degrees C and bactiria dies at 60 degrees C. 

My two filtration systems each are designed to do different jobs. The cotton filter was intended to remove the majority of the sediments but not meant for killing the bacteria vs the boiling water was intended for killing bacteria but has no way to remove the sediments. I will show the differences between the two systems starting with the sediments. To show the sediment differences between the two strategies I have a small microscope that I will allow viewers to look through. I will let them see the differences between different samples. In order to show the differences in bacteria I will have a petri dish for each of the samples.

I took a clean, empty bottle with a lid and filled it with water from the horse trough. Next I prepared five Specimen water dopers and three petri dishes with agar and corresponding labels to minimize any mistakes or confusion when creating my samples. 

Below are the steps that I took to assess the bacterial growth and sediment level through the three experiments.

• Specimen #1 simply clean tap water as a control
• Specimen #2 contaminated horse trough water
• Specimen #3 horse trough water run through a funnel with cotton balls 
• Specimen #4 boiled horse trough water 
• Specimen #5 funnel with cotton balls then boiled

The last step is to  put exactly 1mL of water from each dopper into the corresponding labeled petri dish and wait for growth which will take about 3-5 days.

• Specimen #1 The tap water which was my control had the least amount of bacteria and little to no sediments.
• Specimen #2 the unfiltered contaminated water surprisingly didn't have the most bacteria but it had the largest sediments.
• Specimen #3 The cotton filter that had the most bacteria, it also had a very small amount of sediment. I think that the reason it had the most bacteria instead of the original was because the cotton may have had some bacteria in it which mixed with the water.
• Specimen #4 The boiled water had some sediments but little bacteria.
• Specimen #5 combined experiments showed little bacteria growth and had extremely small amounts of sediments.

• During this project I have seen that my water purification sytem was not as effective as the tap water, but knowing that people in Africa or Morocco where the sources of water are rare and dirty you'll see that my purification system may not be the most effective but it's better than drinking dirty water.  Although my purification system is not the most effective I feel more than confident drinking the water from Specimen #5 cotton filters and boiled water combined.  

After finishing my experiment, waiting for my petri dish to show bacteria, which way is the best to purify water? 

My cotton filter had removed a great deal of the sediments but the bacteria still showed a large amount of growth. I found that the boiling water showed little bacteria but the sediments still lingered. the combined systems (like I hypothesized) got rid of the sediments and the majority of the bacteria. So the two strategys combind was the most effective but I still recomend using tap water.

During this project I have seen that my water purification was not as effective as the tap water, but knowing that people in Africa or Morocco where the sources of water are rare and dirty you'll see that my purification system may not be the most effective but it's better than drinking dirty water.  Although my purification system is not the most effective I feel more than confident drinking the water from Specimen #5 cotton filters and boiled water combined.  

During my first experiment I used paper towel instead of cotton balls. The paper towel started tearing apart and ended up in my filtered water. I realized this and ended up redoing the experiment.

My sourses for my research are below 

• Churchill, Craig (Science Teacher)
• Kaufman, A. (2022, July 19). At what temperature does water boil? Explaining water's boiling point and how long it will take. USA TODAY. Retrieved March 14, 2025, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food-dining/2022/07/19/at-what-temperature-does-water-boil/10088297002/
• Moyer, K. M. (2020, September 16). What Temperature Kills Bacteria in Water and Food? Healthline. Retrieved February 12, 2025, from https://www.healthline.com/health/what-temperature-kills-bacteria
• Moyer, K. M. (2020, September 16). What Temperature Kills Bacteria in Water and Food? Healthline. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://www.healthline.com/health/what-temperature-kills-bacteria
• Tedder, R. (2024, May 7). What Temperature Kills Bacteria in Water? Thirsty Work. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://www.thirstywork.com/articles/what-temperature-kills-harmful-bacteria-in-water
• Boil Water Response - Information for the Public Health Professional. (2023, April). Department of Health. Retrieved February 12, 2025, from https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/boilwater/response_information_public_health_professional.htm#:~:text=Boiling%20water%20kills%20or%20inactivates,more%20accurately%20characterized%20as%20pasteurization
• Boil Water Response-Information for the Public Health Professional. (n.d.). New York State Department of Health. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/boilwater/response_information_public_health_professional.htm
• Boiling point. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_point
• Growing Bacteria - Cool Science Experiment [TV series]. (2013). SpanglerScienceTV. https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=966baabafb34a32c&rlz=1CAJFMC_enCA1039CA1039&sxsrf=AHTn8zrP2AdH2OAhQxFDdmb8vROHyEYUDQ:1739927185733&q=how+to+use+a+petri+dish&udm=7&fbs=ABzOT_CWdhQLP1FcmU5B0fn3xuWp6IcynRBrzjy_vjxR0KoDMs-NPkvpfnC0-Nvsd7HFz31AjQaPqlhRjWu (Original work published 2013)
• What is the boiling point of water? (n.d.). Ask USDA. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-is-the-boiling-point-of-water
• (n.d.). flicker. Retrieved March 15, 2025, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/87039642@N00/8360304895 

• Mrs Summerscales for helping me every wednesday overcome problems.
• Thank you Jamie low for helping me design my trifold. She has a science degree.
• I would like to thank my mom for helping me with organization and printing.
• I would also like to thank my grade 7/8 Science teacher who taught me about the quantity and quality of the earth's water and the effects it has had on different people in different countries.
• Last but not least I would like to thank my dad who helped me with all of the math equations by checking them over.