Power Your House with Water
Generating power from water has a long, successful history.Copyright Smallbones 2013. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirk_Mills_water_wheel.JPG
Students learn how engineers design devices that use water to generate electricity by building model water turbines and measuring the resulting current produced in a motor. Student teams work through the engineering design process to build the turbines, analyze the performance of their turbines and make calculations to determine the most suitable locations to build dams.
Throughout time, people have used the energy of falling and flowing water to produce power—from waterwheels used to grind grain to modern hydroelectric dams to power cities. Engineers design many of these technologies. In some areas, water is a reliable, clean and inexpensive renewable energy source suitable to replace fossil fuel-burning power plants. Today civil, mechanical, environmental and electrical engineers work together to harness the energy of water and generate electricity from that resource.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Design, build and test a model wind turbine.
- Describe how water turbines transfer the energy of water into electricity.
- List several advantages and disadvantages for using hydroelectric power.