April 3, 2018 - Week 1

Scenarios: 
A flood inundates the city and the first floor is covered, we are on the second floor in the house. Our resources are in the bedrooms, the bathrooms, and everything on the second floor. Water has flooded the city and the salt in the sea water has polluted the clean water supply.

Location: Coastal Southern United States (i.e. Texas, Florida, etc.)

Micron-sized beads of bacteria - grayish color
Copper sulfate - blue
Organic matter - pink (pink dye)

Brainstorm:

1. Possible Materials:

  • Towels
  • Clothing
  • Flashlights
  • Batteries
  • Garbage bags
  • Storage bins
  • Gutters
  • Chair padding
  • Cardboard
  • Tape
  • Waterproof materials from suitcases
  • Camping equipment
  • Electric wire cable
  • Cement
  • Musical instruments
  • Craft supplies
  • Charcoal (carbon) - good for filtering organic matter and copper
  • Tire pump - to pump water from first floor into the filtration system
2. Initial Design Ideas
  • water passes through charcoal pieces
  • cheesecloth after these filters to remove tiny charcoal particles and other solids from the water
  • water is then transferred into a pot on a flame (solar boiling)
  • water gets boiled to get rid of bacteria

Summary:
This week we selected the scenarios that we wanted to work and brainstormed a list of existing materials that we can find in our attic, that can be used to filter out the different solutions in flood water. 

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