When engineers water plants, they make a Rube Goldberg project out of it. This engineering project was on display at the Explore UT event in Austin on Saturday, and kids and prospective students from all over were invited to get to know the campus’s colleges and organizations.
The engineering students’ project involved 21 steps and various household items to get H20 to their plant, and sure enough, water reached its destination. The starting point was the mechanical hamster up at the top of the contraption.
My method of watering involves at most two steps (move hose, turn on water), or better yet, zero steps (wait for rain). Now, which of us is the genius here, I ask you? 🙂
Actually, we love Rube-Goldberg projects — my older son is destined to be an engineer, so projects like these are always going on in his head. I wonder whether I could get him to be more willing to sweep the floor if I asked him to make a Rube-Goldberg project out of it… hmmm….
Over at the chemistry department, the boys enjoyed watching fiery explosions of hydrogen balloons, fingers set on fire, jets of flame, and a banana turned into a hammer via liquid nitrogen.
The chemistry professor even created an indoor thunderstorm, drenching the front row and momentarily removing oxygen from the vicinity.
The zoologist in me dragged the family through giant scorpions, Death’s Head cockroaches, furry tarantulas, expanding lungs, sheep brains, skeletal comparisons, and other interesting displays of the biological world. Here I roll my eyes, because I literally had to force my kids to experience that which fascinates me. Nothing blew up, so why should they be interested? I made a meager attempt to get them to look at algae through a microscope. Yeah, forget that, Mom.
But eating ice cream made from liquid nitrogen? Exciting and tasty! Mass ping-pong explosion via mouse traps? Fun! Sigh. Okay, to be fair, all that stuff was pretty cool.
Here’s a view of the UT tower as seen from through a chain-link fence at the top of RLM, one of the engineering buildings at UT.
The boys got a great glimpse at the college experience, and the chemistry professor taunted them (and the rest of the audience) that he gets to use the S word (stupid) at college, and they don’t. It was a good day.
Love this post! I am married to one of those engineers who like to tinker with the possibilities of turning a simple thing like watering into a contraption, thanks for the giggle =)
We went to Explore UT last year and it is such a great event to get kids excited about learning and college! Thanks for sharing the experiment – people’s ingenuity never ceases to amaze!
Hi Meredith, This is funny. I wait for the rain too. But I am more diligent with those in the pots.
You may have heard about the difficulties involved in inventing a pen that works in the rocket due to the lack of gravity. I heard the Russians just used pencils up there.
I want one of those watering contraptions! I’ll recommend the idea to my son who is also a geek. 🙂
I’m biased, but getting more young minds thinking like engineers or scientists is good not only for them, but for this country, our society, and the world. Don’t be discouraged by the current lack of interest in biology either — they’re just drawn to what’s unknown, and right now they probably get a fair amount of “biology” at home. =)
I love science and this was a very cool post. In architecture school we had to design a pingpong ball launcher and so many uncreative types used a rat trap. Not a lot of originality.
Meredith, Looks like a fun day for all of you. Thanks for sharing. I will be emailing your blog link to my best friend. Her husband is an engineer and her 7-year-old is definitely following in Dad’s footsteps. He was disappointed that baby brother-to-be’s stroller could be put together in just 4 steps and is anxiously waiting to help assemble the crib which has plenty of screws and fasteners to keep him busy for an afternoon.