How To Make Your Own Groundwater Filter

UW Science Expeditions 2021: Create your own groundwater model

Acquire firsthand about the connexion between surface h2o and groundwater! Using a plastic shoebox, sand, and a turkey baster, participants will see how water enters and moves through an aquifer.

This activity helps participants larn how h2o enters (infiltrates) an aquifer and how water moves (percolates) through an aquifer. Participants should too understand through this action that the level of basiswater (the h2o tabular array) is closely tied to the water level of nearby rivers, streams, and lakes.

This three-minute video gives a quick overview of how to make a shoebox groundwater model.

What you volition need

One vi-quart encounter-through plastic shoebox or other large rectangular plastic container
Coarse-grained sand and fine gravel to fill most half of the plastic box (AQUIFER). Aquarium gravel works well. A 20-pound pocketbook is enough for three models.
1 5-oz disposable cup (WELL)
Paperclip or some other tool to poke small holes in the cup
Small-scale plastic toy people, houses, cars, etc. (These could be optional, but the illustration helps learners understand the concepts.)
A turkey baster (PUMP)

Concepts to acquire

An aquifer is an area where large amounts of water are stored underground in natural formations of sand, gravel, or rock. In many parts of Wisconsin, much of the h2o that nosotros beverage is pumped from an aquifer through a well.
H2o enters the soil due to the force of gravity afterwards it rains or snows.
Water flows through the spaces betwixt the grains in the soil due to the force of gravity.
Recharge is the water that infiltrates into the soil and replenishes the groundwater.
Groundwater and surface water are connected.

What to do

translucent plastic shoebox half-filled with aquarium gravel, arranged with a hill at one end and a depression in one corner

After completing Step iii, your box should look something like this. (Click to overstate.)

1. Fill half of the shoebox with sand and gravel.

ii. Brand certain that the superlative of the sand is sloped and has a depression in one corner (for a lake). This represents the country surface sloping toward a lake.

iii. Place a small plastic house, fauna, etc. on the "country surface up." This makes the shoebox into a "model."

Poke holes in the cup.

4. Poke many small holes into the bottom and sides of the cup and mark rings on the outside and inside of the cup about ½ an inch apart. A large metal paperclip works well for poking holes.

Shoebox groundwater model with the cup buried to represent a well

Insert the cup into the gravel so that information technology's partially buried. Now information technology represents a water-supply well.

5. Scoop a small depression in the gravel and place the cup into the gravel to the bottom of the box. This cup is going to represent a high-capacity water-supply well. Make sure the cup sits on the lesser of the box, otherwise it may outset to bladder when you add together water to the model.

6. Use your turkey baster to sprinkle water on the surface, representing rainfall. Then, add more water (with the baster) near the hill. Water sprinkled on the surface models atmospheric precipitation, the source of groundwater.

7. Slowly fill the shoebox and gravel with water until the lake in the opposite corner starts to fill. Be careful non to cascade h2o besides quickly! Sometimes it takes a long fourth dimension for water to motility through the gravel to the other side of the shoebox. When water moves downwards into the gravel from in a higher place, this is infiltration. When water moves sideways to fill up the gravel in the shoebox, this is called percolation. Groundwater ofttimes moves very slowly.

Shoebox groundwater model with the land surface and water table marked on the side

After adding h2o and mark the h2o levels, your groundwater model should look similar to this. (Click to overstate.)

8. Mark the side of the box at the top of the lake and mark the other side at the top of the water in the sand and gravel (the h2o table). Look into the well (plastic loving cup) and mark the h2o level on the inside of the well.

9. Refill the turkey baster and then add that water to the "hillside" of the shoebox to simulate recharge of the aquifer. Notation what happens to the water level in the lake and in the well.

10. Use your turkey baster to remove more water from the plastic cup than you added in step ix. This pace represents what happens when you pump water out of the aquifer. Watch and annotation what happens to the water level in the lake and in the well.

Questions to consider

What happened to the water level in the lake when you added water to the shoebox through recharge?
What happened to the water level in the lake when yous removed water from the shoebox through pumping?
This system was a model of how aquifers and lakes (and rivers) are related to each other. Can yous explain how your experiment might relate to the effect of aquifer water levels on lakes in existent life?

Caption

This activity demonstrates several key concepts near how h2o moves into and through aquifers. Participants should now understand that water enters the ground, and ultimately the aquifer, from the surface. The source of water entering the ground could be rainfall, represented in this model by water being sprinkled on the surface or poured onto the hillside. Through the strength of gravity, h2o moves through the aquifer. The participants should take observed this when they watched the water move from the side where they poured water onto the gravel, to the dry out gravel and the depression (lake) on the other side of the shoebox. The groundwater and the surface water are connected. Pumping removes h2o from the aquifer and can lower the water level in nearby lakes and streams.

Big ideas

Groundwater comes from precipitation.

Groundwater moves through the spaces between the sand grains (pore space). No underground streams or underground lakes are needed for groundwater catamenia.

Groundwater and surface water are connected. Over-pumping groundwater can dry upward surface water.

Diagram of a homemade groundwater model with labels for a lake, plastic cup (well), top of sand, and groundwater

This activity was originally adapted by Carol McCartney with permission from the San Antonio River Authority.
(downloaded ane/22/2011 from https://web.annal.org/spider web/20120711172500/http:/www.sara-tx.org/education_outreach/documents/Activity_06.pdf )