Here is my recommended song for this post.

So, recently in science we have been doing a unit all about energy and in math we have been doing graphing and linear equations.

We started off the math unit with doing a mini project where we analyzed a body of water and tried to graph a rise or decline in a certain aspect. Me and Willa tried to analyze the tides of North Vancouver to see if we could find a rise or decline in overall sea level. I’m sure you could see where that would go wrong. After recording two weeks worth of data we realized that to get an accurate reading of a rise or decline in sea level it isn’t best to analyse tides. A little fact about tides is that they increase and decrease based on the sun and moon rotation but also they tend to be higher if it rains for a while. During the time we recorded data it was really rainy. So, of course, it wasn’t the best outcome but we still were able to produce a graph and explain our reasoning.

Then we went to a powerhouse. The powerhouse was at Stave Lake all the way out in the valley. Now I am also in scouting and for the past 8 years or so, I have gone camping at that lake every year. I of course have gone to the powerhouse multiple times and already knew a fair bit of the tour. Thus it wasn’t the most exciting field trip for me but I was still able to focus on what we needed to gather. Information as to how to build and operate a water wheel or an energy capturing device.

After getting back we began our project. We had to build a machine that could capture energy from nature and be able to power at least one LED lightbulb. Since this was a pretty big task we were put into groups. I was with Willa, Michael, Aiden and Kate. We went through many different ideas. The first of which was creating a contraption that used fire to generate electricity. We found some videos that showed how we could use a coffee can to build up steam pressure from a fire and then spit it out and turn a generator. This idea was shot down by Mr. Gross because it was unsafe for school. Me being a bit of a Pyro was a little unhappy about it. We then came up with the idea of using pinwheel fans to turn a generator using wind. This didn’t work as the generator we had access to needed more RPM than we could create.

So we ended up creating a water wheel with everyone else. Since we started building our water wheel last we got the short end of the stick and had to use a more tightly wound generator (pretty much, it took more force to turn). This was the biggest factor in creating our machine. We started by using plastic cutlery and hot glue to create a frame and then we used spoon heads to create the cup to capture water, to make the wheel turn. We went down to the creek and tested it.

It didn’t work.

So we ripped it apart and built a new frame that was a bit more sound and instead of spoon heads we used halved pop cans. This would be stronger and create more force.

We first made 4 arms of pop cans but that wasn’t enough.

We then tried 6. That almost worked.

And finally we tried 8 and that WORKED!!

We were able to get 1.62 volts and 0.32 amps. Which, if using the proper equation, comes to 0.5184 watts per. second. Since joules is equal to watts in the grand scheme of things. We produce 0.5184 joules per. second as well. If you do some graphing and a quick google search you can determine that it takes approx. 10.5 hours to fully charge an iPhone battery with our water wheel.

After we built and tested our machine (it was pretty much falling apart by then) we then had to create an advertisement that sold all of the benefits of our product (the wheel).

We spent about a week coming up with a script, filming various shots and editing. We decided to try to make it as cheesy as possible like one of those “As Seen On TV” ads.

This project was interesting but after a while it started to get a little annoying. We had a lot of time to complete the project which made it more of an easy going atmosphere. We went through multiple drafts each time it came up with the same problems, our generator was too tightly wound. Although I did learn some stuff about energy as well as linear equations I found that if the project was a little more intense it would have been more fun. I think next time it would be better if we had less time as well as more of a goal, other than a video and a working generator.