Water purification – practical videos | 14–16 students | Practical video

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Learn how to purify water and test it to see if it is potable

Potable water means ‘safe to drink’. In this practical students will learn how to purify water so that it is safe to drink.

Mrs Peers-Dent of Malmesbury Educationpurifies ‘seawater’ (sodium chloride solution), using a flame test to test for sodium ions and a precipitate test to test for chloride ions before and after the distillation. If you are going to carry out this practical in a school laboratory, the CLEAPSS guidance does require the use of anti-bumping granules which are not included in this video.

Real-world contexts

Meet Katty, who monitors the levels of organic materials in drinking and wastewater across the Thames Water catchment area.
Use this story and the accompanying summary slide to learn about how potable water can be collected from water vapour in the air in drought-hit areas.
Introduce how the Mayans used zeolites to produce potable water more than 2000 years ago.
Share with learners the many novel ways people are purifying water around the world.
What happens when I flush the loo? – find out how advances in water treatment mean that waste water is recycled.

Additional information

We have collated these videos of key practical experiments to support remote teaching as part of our response to Covid-19. Teachers requested resources to help them deliver practical content without access to laboratories or equipment. We are developing further resources and welcome feedback to help us produce those you most need. Please email us or use the comment section below.

Real-world contexts added by Ian McDaid.