SOLAR STILL 

Development process explained by a Road To Success Academy student

I am going to start off by telling you how to do a solar still--turning salt water into pure drinking water.

People in the Middle East use solar still because they don’t have pure drinking water.

I’m going to tell you how to do so.

1. You dig a whole 4 ft. wide and 2ft deep until you get an angled hole.
2. Then you put a cup in the center of the angled hole and put plant leaves around the angled hole because plants create moisture.
3. Then you place a plastic drop cloth over the angled hole and put rocks at the end of the plastic drop cloth so it can stay in place.
4. Then you pour salt mixed with water into the center of the plastic drop cloth.
5. Finally, you let it sit in the sun for a couple of days because sun gives it energy and plants give it moisture until the salt water is turned into pure drinking water at the bottom of the plastic drop cloth into the cup then you taste it and see if it’s pure drinking water. It should be. …And that’s how you turn salt water into pure drinking water.

Student Project coordinator: Ms. T 

Reflections on the process

The first time I did this project it didn’t really work out well because it wasn’t that hot outside and it took a week for the water to evaporate into the hole. It didn’t really have enough sunlight. The temperature was hot when I tasted the salt water, so I tried it again and it worked out better because it was hotter outside. It dissolved into the cup  faster. The temperature was cool this time like it was when I first poured the water on the plastic drop cloth. The third and last time I tried it came out very good because it was very hot outside and when I poured the water onto the plastic drop cloth I discovered in 2 days and it was pure drinking water. I smelled the water and it didn’t smell anything like salt water, like when I first smelled it with the salt in the water.