Raindrops are Falling on My Water Wheel – January Engineering Challenge Results

Each month, our students have the opportunity to compete in our after-school Engineering Challenge competition.

The goals of the Challenge include:

  1. providing students an opportunity to experience authentically and firsthand the process of engineering as they work as engineers to complete a design challenge
  2. providing students an opportunity to work as a group to collaborate and communicate to achieve a common goal
  3. providing students an opportunity to compete as an academic team in a different type of competition than our yearly science fair, thus expanding the opportunities for students to gain recognition for their accomplishments in science and related STEAM disciplines.

The January Challenge was to create an energy-producing water wheel that makes use of water falling through a gutter spout.  Students were given 45 minutes to construct the water wheel, and they had to test the wheel using a gutter spout assembly.  The groups were allowed to pour two, full buckets of water through the gutter assembly, and based on the speed and amount of rotation of the wheel, the groups could generate energy via a motor attachment.  The energy output was tabulated, and the group with the highest output was named the winner.

Thank you to Anna Cotton (Alt Ed Science), Dana Munn (Science), Michael Lavers (Math), and Chris Connors (Art) for working with me as a team to plan and provide these opportunities.

–Natalie Munn