Match particle sizes
Each idealized layer traps a different suspended particle size.
Water Filter Designer
Design filter layers that trap suspended particles while dissolved material remains.
Grades 3–5 · Earth Science
Your goal
Use at most 1 filter layer and pour the sample. Trap the large particles. Dissolved material will remain.
Reduced motion is on. The controls still update the scene.
Choose layers to trap different particle sizes, then pour a fresh sample. Dissolved units are shown as blue dots.
Ideal layers trap only their assigned suspended particle size. Real filters have variable pores and do not remove every particle. Germs and chemical hazards are not modeled. Never use this activity to decide whether water is drinkable.
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Learn with Water Filter Designer
Water Filter Designer helps elementary learners separate two ideas that are easy to confuse. Suspended particles can be caught by suitable filter layers, while dissolved material can travel through with the water. Students add gravel, fine sand, or cloth and pour a fresh sample through the stack. Counts show which particle sizes remain and which were trapped, so every particle can be accounted for. Limited layer goals encourage careful choices. The collected sample always retains dissolved units, emphasizing that clearer water alone does not establish drinking safety.
What to look for
Watch dissolved units
The blue dissolved units pass through every layer in this model.
Use fewer layers
Meet the goal within its layer allowance, then pour a fresh sample.
For teachers and curious learners
Distinguish suspended particle removal from dissolved material. Ask students to predict what will happen, change one setting, and explain what they observe. Learn gives a starting point. Practice and Challenge offer new goals with the same scene.
Idealized size-specific trapping only; germs, dissolved hazards and drinkability are not assessed.