Vonderhaar 1
Kristina Vonderhaar
Topics in Science
11/30/2016
The Scientific Method
“The scientific method is a method commonly used by scientists to solve problems. They
analyze facts and observations, formulate hypotheses, and test the validity of the hypotheses with
experiments and additional observations. [ CITATION Don14 \l 1033 ]” Believe it or not we use
the scientific method in our everyday lives rather frequently. Determining the weather outside,
balancing a budget, even cooking dinner, all of these things require use of the scientific method.
One thing I am deeply interested about is clean water and the process of obtaining it with
help of the scientific method. With the Flint Michigan water crisis still ongoing and the DPL
outlook of a peaceful ending looking bleak, I truly want to be able to keep my drinking water
safe if I ever find myself in a disaster or hazardous situation. The CDC recommends having at
least one gallon of clean water per day per person in case of an emergency, but what happens if
your small supply runs out?
Dr. Mary Carunchia has a PhD in Food Science from North Carolina State University and
she currently holds the title of Principal Scientists in PepsiCo’s Advanced Research team. I
recently stumbled upon her experiment that reinforced the use of the scientific method in the
water filtration process. It was entitled Clean Drinking Water: Using the Scientific Method and
Dr. Carunchia led the experiment herself and explained how we can use ground water,
precipitation or even river or stream water, filter it and have it drinkable in no time.
In the experiment Dr. Carunchia asked simple questions, how we can ensure safe
