Activated Carbon
Activated carbon is a form of charcoal with tiny holes that trap dirt and toxins from water or air.
A kitchen sponge soaks up spills because it is full of tiny holes. Activated carbon works the same way. The carbon is packed with holes too small to see. Dirty water flows through, and the holes trap the bad stuff inside.
Explaining activated carbon by grade level
Think of a sponge with very tiny holes. When dirty water goes through it, the bad stuff sticks to the holes. The clean water comes out the other side. The more sponge you use, the more bad stuff it can grab.
Projects that explore activated carbon
When water passes through an activated carbon filter, the tiny holes in the charcoal trap chlorine before it reaches the output. Over time, those holes fill up and the filter stops working. Higher chlorine concentrations fill the holes faster, so filters exposed to heavy doses fail sooner than those running on low-chlorine water.
Activated carbon's tiny holes trap particles that slip through coarser materials. In this project, you pour water through a filtering tube packed with layers of charcoal, sand, and gravel. The layered filter traps tiny particles that the strainer and settling missed.
Malathion kills flies within 30 minutes on its own, but activated carbon may change that outcome. You spray malathion on overripe bananas placed in aquarium tanks with flies, then coat some bananas with activated carbon solution at different concentrations. The tiny holes in the activated carbon can trap the pesticide before it harms the flies. By counting survivors over one hour, the results show whether higher doses of activated carbon protect more flies from malathion.