Move It Design an Irrigation System

The Challenge Design and build an irrigation system that will move 400 ml of water 1 meter and deliver it evenly to two separate containers.

Ice Breaker 400 ml container with water is your reservoir, such as a lake. The empty cups represent two villages that need the water. Mission: Design a system to transport the water from the lake to the villages, with the least amount of water loss and divide the water equally between the two villages. Brainstorm: Available materials: – Use what materials to transport water? – Use what materials to attached/connect things together? – Use what materials to support the system structure? How might the water move? – with a pump, gravity?

Design Constraints You can use only the materials provided. You must be able to remove the containers that capture the water in order to measure it in the graduated cylinders. The system must be free standing. You cannot touch or hold the irrigation elements while water is running through the system.

Design/Build Process Small teams will have 20 minutes to design and build. You will have 5 minutes to pair up with another team to test your designs and give feedback. Teams will have 10 minutes to redesign before the final test.

Evaluation Criteria The system which distributes the water most equally to the two locations with the least amount of water loss wins.

Brainstorm, Design and Build Form small groups (desired - 4 per group) Each group to get handout and materials You have 20 minutes to brainstorm and sketch ideas: – What are some different ways to tackle this problem? – How creative can you be? – Which ideas are possible given your time, materials, and tools? – How could you use gravity to help transport the water? – How can a sketch help you clarify your ideas? – Run trials to test your system at different stages of the construction process. – Use the Trial Score Chart to rate your design (see back of the handout.)

Test & Club Check-In Work together in pairs. Teams to help each other by providing feedback on designs and ideas for redesign. Ask each other: – Can you predict which container will receive the most/least amount of water? – Do you notice places where water is leaking from the system? What are ways to solve this? – If your system failed, what do you think went wrong? – What did you learn from testing that you could use in your redesign? Remember, there is no failure—just failed attempts to learn from.

Redesign Return to individual teams and redesign your systems. Ask yourself: – Did you decide to revise your original design after testing? Why? How? – What clues did you learn from testing to help you improve your design?

Test the Final Design Everyone to watch each team test their irrigation system. Remember the goal is a system that distributes the water most equally to two locations with the least amount of water loss. Each team to describe how their system works. Test your system. And the winner is....

Share Results Talk about interesting outcomes: – What was unique about the design or construction of the irrigation system that had the best results? – What design aspect brought about your team’s best results? Why? – If your system failed, what do you think went wrong? – If you had to do it again, how would you improve your design? Why?

Wrap-Up Does your design remind you of any real-world water transport systems? Why is important to move water efficiently, accurately, and with the least amount of water loss? – The New York City water supply system leaks at a rate of up to 36 million US gallons (140,000 m 3 ) per day. – A faucet leaking water at 1 drip per second can lose 3,000 gallons per year.