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EDUCATION Keeping the wheels turning Bellview fourth-graders cap water unit by testing handmade water wheels Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Oct. 31, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated at 8:27 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Oct. 31, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated at 8:27 PM » Social News A girl in tight black braids and glasses aimed her plastic syringe at the stick-impaled yogurt container before her and fired away, shooting a stream of water toward the tiny paddle-like targets. The direct hit sent the water wheel, pieced together by tape, chopsticks and plastic scraps, into a counterclockwise whir, winding up a string attached to the side and spraying two girl bystanders who giggled as they put the finishing touches on their own machine. It was a wet, wild moment of truth for fourth-grade students at Bellview Elementary on Thursday afternoon, as they wrapped up a two-month unit study on water by testing out their own hand-built water wheels. Messy but educational, the research-based science curriculum known as Full Option Science System, or FOSS, was created by the University of California, Berkley and represents Bellview’s effort to meet state standards for science education. “So that’s what they’ve been doing for the last two months,” Bellview science coordinator Ginny Segal said Thursday, raising her voice to overcome the cacophony of water-spraying mayhem all around her. “They’ve been learning about temperature, how to make a thermometer, about evaporation, about condensation and all the different properties of water.” It’s all about learning by doing, Segal said. When it came time to study the differences between liquid water and frozen water, teachers explain the changes and also show them, too. For that, water was poured into a glass jar and placed in a freezer. The resulting explosion was noted and recorded in a folder each child keeps. “So each lesson is a hands-on experiment that they do,” Segal said. “They read about it, we learn about it, they do an experiment and then they have to write about it. So fourth grade is a lot of writing, and a lot is expected of them. Complete sentences — we’re really big on that.” The water wheels represented the finish line of Bellview’s water unit marathon, and though results varied each student was required to demonstrate their understanding of the wheel’s function through their design. The secondary goal was to design a wheel that operated with maximum efficiency, and that was measured by the number of syringe pumps required to wind up the entire length of string — the less syringe pumps, the more efficient the wheel was. The fourth-graders watched videos that featured full-sized, working water wheels for inspiration, and their interpretations were as diverse as the results. Most of the wheels required five to 10 pumps, but some hardly moved while others spun like a wind-up toy. Alex Mellon-Case, 10, said the water wheel she and her partner designed wound up the string in 10 pumps. After Thursday’s test run, she was pleased with the result, if not her wheel’s style. “We took spoons and we trimmed them down and then we made holes in these containers,” Mellon-Chase said. “Then we shoved them in and then we put duct tape around them and when we found out that these were skipping along, slowing it down, we trimmed them down. We should have used some better tape and made it more neat instead of all this sloppy tape and sloppy roundness area, but our title is pretty good. We call it 'Agua,' because that’s 'water' in Spanish.” Treycin Alexander’s design looked bulkier than many of his peers’, but the lightweight materials he used combined with its relative simplicity turned out to be a huge advantage. He wound up his string in one squirt. It’s no wonder. Alexander enjoys fixing things around the house, says he repaired his dad’s car radio last year and wants to become an engineer when he grows up. “I was going to stick the knife part inside the plastic, but the plastic was too strong to get it through without breaking it,” said Alexander, 10, pointing to the black barrel-shaped container with plastic knives taped to the side. “So, I wrapped it in duct tape and stuck a stick through it and then I just taped the knives on in half.” It’s not pretty, but it works. Other students went in completely different directions. Some abandoned the plastic container base model in favor of a Popsicle stick, propeller design. Others made use of plastic lids, taped together around the center rod. The students frantically assembled and tweaked their creations on one of three tables set up in a large room off the main hallway. Another table in the back of the room served as the testing zone, where students took turns squirting their wheels, recording the results and occasionally wiping the water spray off their faces. Fourth-grade teacher Cory Carnes, who’s in his second year at Bellview, spent some of the afternoon on his hands and knees, wiping water off the floor with a towel. He didn’t mind. “All of these are going to be big and messy and crazy, but that’s part of the fun,” he said. “And I think that that opportunity to collaborate, to ask and answer questions live and in real time is just great. It can be a handful from a management standpoint, but that’s OK.” Asked about Alexander’s unique take on the assignment, Carnes said that’s exactly the sort of inspiration that hands-on projects are meant to spark. “It’s exciting,” he said, “and it’s inspiring to me because those are those moments that real learning and breakthroughs take place. You can only do so much in a regular classroom environment. You’ve got to get them out there trying things. And it’s super exciting when that light bulb goes on and suddenly you see this aspect of a kid that you never saw before.” Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Oct. 31, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated at 8:27 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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