Project Pipeline

Overview

Encourage your students to role-play different careers and work through the engineering design process as they develop possible solutions to protect Earth’s freshwater supply. Humans, plants and animals need freshwater to survive, so it is crucial that scientists and engineers can devise ways to bring Earth’s limited supply of freshwater to populations that need it. In this lesson, students will create models of freshwater pipelines to simulate the transmission of freshwater from the Colorado River to a town in Southwestern California. They will learn how scientists and engineers work together to protect Earth’s freshwater supply and employ the basic properties of water to create an effective pipeline model.

21st CENTURY SKILLS
Collaboration
Communication
Creativity
Critical Thinking

DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Defining the Problem
Designing Solutions
Creating or Prototyping
Refining or Improving
Communicating Results