Photo by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

The following article was written by my Uncle John about his recent experience making a hydroelectric dam with his 7th Grade boy.  John is the father of two boys and two girls.  He is one of three brothers to my mother and they did o good job of being my older brothers when I was little.  That means they generally terrorized me through trickery, tickling, and being sat on.  Sometimes they would even trick me into being sat on so they could tickle me.  That was the worst!!  It has been a few years since those days, but John and his kids still have Table Top Hockey Tournaments and I am pretty sure that John still has the parts to my Slot Car Set. Weren’t those the days, John?!? Anyway, here is John’s perspective about working on the science project with  his son.

The finished product

Reflections on a Science Project

The science project is over. The grading is complete. How was the experience for Danny? How was it for me? Tough questions.

When we started this project, I thought back to my 7th grade science project – The Steam Engine and How It Works. I still remembered the day of the presentations and the judging and winning 1st prize. But more importantly, I remember, like it was yesterday, how my dad helped me, guided me and taught me during the process. There was learning the physical jobs and techniques, such as soldering with a torch. But he showed me that sometimes you have to look beyond the obvious solution to a problem to get the results you want. For example, how do you get condensed milk out of the can you need for a steam turbine, without unsealing the top or bottom of the can. (You drill a hole in the side, and use the hole as part of the finished project.) To this day, I often think of that milk can lessonwhenI’m faced witha tough situation where the obvious solution isn’t necessarily the best solution. That’s the kind of experience I hoped to have with Danny.

The generator

Danny came to me with the idea that he wanted to build a hydroelectric dam for his project and see if different levels of water behind the dam would affect the amount of power produced at the generator at the bottom of the dam. This was a topic he had given some serious thought to. I was proud, make that VERY proud, to learn that he was inspired, in part, by my steam engine project. So that night we started planning what he wanted to do. There are a lot more instructions and rules to follow for a science project today than there were back when I made my project, so we had to get a lot of clarification from the teacher.

A large part of the experiment was to understand and follow the Scientific Method. This meant he had to propose a hypothesis for the experiment. He researched the hydroelectric dam, studied the electric generation process for the hypothesis. We drew sketches of how we would make it. We studied how a generator works and if we could make our own. He thought about how much water it would take. The wheels were turning in his head. I could see it. It was just as I hoped it would be – he wanted it to work.

The generator in action

The further Danny progressed in his research (and as I read along with him), I had the thought that this experiment might not produce the results he wanted. When I told him my concern, he looked at me and said, “That’s why we’re doing the experiment, Dad. It may not give us the results we expect, but it will give us results.” How often does a father get that kind of wisdom from his 13-year-old son? I was the one afraid of being disappointed about not getting the “right” answer. He was just looking for an answer. His insight and clarity of why we were doing this made the whole project all that much better.

So I had him do as much of the project as he could. He drilled. He caulked. He filled the bucket. He assembled the turbine generator. He learned how to use a voltmeter. He ran the experiment. He wrote the report. He presented the project to the class. He got the A+.

I like to think he had fun. I had a blast! I hope that if he gets to do a science project with one of his kids, he’ll look back on my involvement with the same gratitude that I have for my father.

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Speaking of Hockey…

This is the venue for the GFHL and the rink is the same rink we played on when I was a kid. Hard to believe that the parts are all still there. Can't be the same pucks, can it?

This is an addition that we didn't have back in the day but a great addition to be sure. Three of John's kids as well as one of their friends is on that scoreboard. What a great way for a family to bond!!