Week 2: The Great Pipe Race

Students participating the the Great Pipe Race

Today the students and Energy Net Interns worked on an activity called the Pipe Race.  During this activity, we put 2 cups of water through funnels attached to pipes of varying diameters and measured how long it took the water to drain out.  The students put the result up on the board to compare how the diameter varied with the drainage rate.

One of the students and an EI putting the results of the race up on the board

After a series of 3 trials, we determined that water flows faster through pipes with greater diameters.  We then connected this idea to the pipes present in our watershed by looking at a map with the width of the sewer pipes underground in the Four Mile watershed.  The teens traced the path water would flow from the museum downhill to the Monongahela River.

Two of the students locating a manhole during the scavenger hunt

The final activity for the day was the Water Scavenger Hunt.  We divided up into four groups and searched the area surrounding the Carnegie Museum for manholes, storm drains, fountains, and fire hydrants. We were looking for things water can enter into the sewer system, such as storm drains, and locations where water comes out, such as fountains.  We marked the location of each feature on a map and tallied the results. We found over 30 storm drains and over 30 manholes. There were only three fire hydrants and half a dozen fountains.

Teens and the Schenley fountain.