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Activity (Hands-On)Grades 4 - 6

NASA eClips Our World: Designing a Shower Clock

A photo showing an example of a shower clock with a descending succession of 3 cups being held together with duct tape.A shower clock prototype consisting of a descending series of cups.

Students apply the engineering design process to design a shower-timer device (shower clock) that accurately measures a five-minute shower. After watching a NASA eClips video segment, students connect water-conservation strategies used aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to their own lives and explore three methods of conserving water: reducing, reusing, and recycling. Working in three-person teams with defined roles (research/design specialist, materials and construction specialist, and test specialist), students design, build, test, refine, and share their shower-clock prototypes.

Water is one of the most valuable resources in space. Transporting a single liter to the International Space Station (ISS) can cost $20,000. To conserve every drop, NASA engineers designed the Water Recovery System, which reclaims 93% of wastewater on the ISS into safe drinking water. Creating and maintaining this system requires a team of engineers from multiple disciplines working together: Environmental and chemical engineers design the purification processes that remove contaminants, mechanical engineers build the hardware such as pumps and filtration units, aerospace engineers ensure the system functions reliably in the harsh conditions of space, and systems engineers coordinate all components so they operate efficiently as a whole. Biomedical engineers and microbiologists also play a role by monitoring water quality to ensure it remains safe for astronauts during long-duration missions.

After this activity, students should be able to:

  • Follow the steps of the engineering design process to plan, construct, test, and improve a shower clock.
  • Explain various ways to conserve water resources by reducing, reusing, and recycling.
  • Compare water conservation methods on Earth to those used by scientists on the International Space Station.

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