H2Oh!: Classroom demonstrations for water concepts is a publication of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers intended to supplement and support practical learning and demonstration of key concepts in undergraduate engineering education. It reads very much like a cookbook – a series of recipes (or rather experiments and practical demonstrations) that are formulated to produce predictable and reproducible results as students learn about everything from fluid mechanics to basic water quality testing.
This book is finely tuned to in-class demonstrations where facilities, safety equipment and supplies, and precision instrumentation are not available. Using supplies like peanut butter, food colouring, sandpaper, and vinyl tubing, the authors lead educators through a variety of simple demonstrations to better explain complex engineering challenges and foundational knowledge about water and its behavior in design, process and environment. Some demonstrations are better suited for elementary and secondary school environments, but all would serve a purpose in the post-secondary environment. Subjects ranging from fluid mechanics through hydraulics, surface water management and groundwater science, and water quality analysis are included.
If you’re looking for an engineering laboratory manual or information on the use of engineering tools, this is not your book. In fact, the lack of authentic instrumentation, analytical equipment and problem-solving approach can be seen as problematic in that students are not learning how to choose, use, apply, calibrate, check and interpret results from engineering tools they’ll be expected to know about in practice. Despite that, the book is exactly what it’s billed as: a series of fun demonstrations to support in-classroom teaching of what could be considered relatively “dry” subject matter.
Since it reads like one, I decided to approach the analysis of the book as I would a cookbook – choosing random experiments to test and try out, evaluating each for ease of completion and achievement of stated objectives, and identifying any weaknesses in either the execution (my error) or the written instructions (the authors’ error).
I decided to start at the beginning with the first demonstration in the book – “What is a fluid?” The demonstration includes use of basic household materials and is designed to help students better understand the characteristics of fluids and to determine whether or not a substance can be defined as a fluid. Working with four substances – plastic knives, water, honey and peanut butter – the “recipe” leads the classroom demonstration through various steps and tests to identify the fluids by evaluating chemical bonding, continuous flow, and changes to physical shape. Obviously, this particular demonstration is more suited to elementary and secondary students but, as mentioned earlier, it could still be a fun way of reviewing the subject matter in a post-secondary setting.
My second foray into testing the demonstrations led me to “Energy grade line and hydraulic grade line”, intended for post-secondary audiences. Once again, the materials are commonplace and inexpensive and allow for a quick and visually interesting classroom demonstration. The demonstration worked; it was easy to follow the instructions and prepare for the demonstration itself. My only criticism is the lack of drawings, schematics, or other visual aids to support construction of the demonstration and evaluate results. Like any good cookbook, the visuals make the recipe that much more appealing and likely to succeed.
Finally, I reviewed a surface water demonstration and another for explaining BOD (biological oxygen demand) by analogy. Given the unusually high snow accumulation in many parts of Canada in 2013, I chose the rainfall-runoff demonstration and looked at whether or not it could be modified for snowmelt-runoff as well. Here, students prepare a watershed of pervious and impervious materials with varying associated friction (like sandpaper versus a kitchen sponge) and then walk through a rainfall event with the instructor. Runoff versus infiltration amounts can be measured and impacts of the runoff investigated as part of the subsequent classroom discussion. By using snow and a hair dryer (or other convenient heat source), the method could certainly be useful for snowmelt scenarios as well.
The BOD by analogy demonstration doesn’t have anything to do with water at all. It’s just as described: an analogy. Using play money, students investigate the differences between DO (dissolved oxygen) concentration, BOD over time, BOD remaining, and ultimate BOD. It’s an active demonstration that goes beyond the typical discussion of BOD theory and review of the BOD curve on a PowerPoint slide. The BOD by analogy demonstration offers a good review of the topic to reinforce theoretical concepts.
The authors of H2Oh!: Classroom demonstrations for water concepts, Amy B. Chan Hilton and Roseanna M. Neupauer, have written an intelligent and simple guide for classroom instructors to demonstrate and offer practical experiences about water sciences and engineering, management, testing and behaviour in a classroom setting. It follows closely current educational methods to enhance experiential learning in university programs. For instance, the Engage: Engaging Students in Engineering project funded by the National Science Foundation in the USA has been working diligently on a similar teaching approach by developing numerous free, online modules they’ve named “E3s – everyday examples in engineering”.
Engage offers E3s Lesson Plans, Solutions and Topics (http://www.engageengineering.org/?page=40) for introducing and presenting fundamental engineering concepts. However, there is a dearth of topics for water resource, civil, and environmental engineering programs. The book H2Oh!: Classroom demonstrations for water concepts fills a niche in the current online and classroom demonstration model and is a worthy publication for any educator seeking interesting, affordable and highly visual demonstrations to engage students in water engineering and concepts.
Minus the calorie count, these demonstrations include all the necessary ingredients to challenge and engage students in the classroom. Each recipe includes information about the target audience, materials needed, duration of demonstration, and preparation time for the instructor. There are clear objectives for all demonstrations and the opportunity for students to not only watch but also become involved. I’ll definitely be using this book in my own classroom.