Water-Wheel

This morning my son had his weather assessment, which I designed and posted on October 29th. This assessment is also available on TPT:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Weather-Assessment

Below are examples of some of the pages contained in the assessment.

In the afternoon my son asked to do a science project. We have a book called Physics - Hands-on Science Projects, and he decided do a water vane.

Materials:

-large plastic bottle
-scissors
-wire or cut out the bottom of a hunger
-cork
-string
small weight
-water

Instructions:

1st step: Cut the top third off the plastic bottle. Cut a small role in the bottom piece near the base (this is to let the water out). Cut a V-shape on each side of the rim (I suggest an adult to do the cutting).

2nd step: Push the wire through the center of the cork to make an axle (again I suggest an adult to do this part).

3rd step: From the top third of the plastic bottle, cut six small curved vanes (blades) (I suggest an adult to do this).

4th step: Cut six slots in the cork with a craft knife (I suggest an adult to do this). Push the plastic vanes into the slots to make the water wheel.

5th step: Rest the wheel's axle in the V-shape slots. Tie a piece of the string toward one end of the axle, and tie a small weight to the end of the string. The first time we tried, we used a eraser, but it was to heavy and it didn't work. Hence, I recommend you use a pencil.

 6th step: Put the water wheel under a plate or towel, and pour water onto the wheel, so that it hits the upward-curving vanes. As the wheel turns, the weight lifts. The video below shows how the water-wheel works.

After we tried this experiment a few times I asked him questions about the functioning of the water-wheel: - Why do you think pouring the water on the vane made the pencil lift? What do you think causes the wheel to move? Furthermore, I asked him to pour water from different heights to see if it would make a difference to the wheel's speed.

Moreover, I explained to him that this experiment shows us how to make a water wheel capture the energy in the falling water to lift a small weight. The energy generated from the water wheel can be enough to meet all the power needs of a small community.

This experience was super cool :), my son did it approximately 20 times :))), he loved it very much!!!!

Hope you enjoyed our post today. Have a nice weekend :). Thanks.

Fabiana