THE WATER TURBINE COMPETITION: A HANDS-ON APPROACH FOR TEACHING CONSERVATION PRINCIPLES

摘要

For the past five semesters, the Water Turbine Competition has added significant excitement and motivation to the historically dreaded Fluid Mechanics course offered in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy. The Water Turbine Competition is an adaptation of the national Hydropower Contest. Teams of two or three students build a water turbine that will lift a weight using only the potential energy stored in a tank of water that is suspended above ground level. The water turbine project has proven to be an exciting and beneficial educational tool.