intervals

The Hawks returned a final time to water timers last week to test their understanding of what variables affect water pressure in creating water clocks that can track regular intervals of time.Ben and Bruno worked on an over-flowing hour glass design, wherein the the overflowing water ensures constant water pressure and therefore constant flow. Mackenzie says, "They had difficulty figuring out how to make the hole between the bottles. They made three different versions of this design, with varying success."She says, "Quinn and Natasha where able to snap together their ideas. Natasha wanted to make an overflowing feeder tank so that they would have constant water pressure and Quinn wanted to create some sort of container that would tip over when it was full indicating that the right amount of time had passed. They figured out how much water would move through their timer in one minute then experimented with how sensitive their balance would have to be to tip with that amount of water in it. They found that a lot of their water overflow would make it’s way into the tipping alarm and set it off early!"They watched this video about the development of water clock technology in Ancient Egypt and Greece to add to their understanding of their experiments. They took notes so they would have a launching off point if they choose to return to these ideas during Expression. This concept of writing in your own words what you've learned is a very important one in the Brightworks experience because it allows young learners to reflect on what they've done and potentially come back to it with new ideas once they've learned more.