Permeable Pavement & More Systems (Day 6)

This morning, the class was given time to explore a game  Plan it Green.   This was a continuation of our discussion yesterday in reference to systems interacting. The necessity for homes to be built with roads leading to them, along with wind farms & nuclear power plants, was an excellent way to illustrate this idea.

We also discussed how systems can be open or closed.  We watched two short videos on YouTube: the first 2 minutes of:Open & Closed Systems, and also Open Systems 30 Second Breakdown.  We then brainstormed ideas for open & closed systems - such as circuits, car doors, etc.

In our quest for clean water, we investigated permeable pavement today.  We first watched a commercial from a manufacturer or permeable pavement systems to better understand how the technology works.  Only the first 3 minutes of Stormwater Runoff Solution: Permeable Pavement is actually relevant to building knowledge we needed.  We then watched Green City, Clean Waters. We were now prepared for our investigation.

Students were given the following parameters:

To create a layer of permeable "pavement" in a foil tray that could absorb water and be smooth enough for walking & driving.  They had 25 minutes and $200.  There choices of materials & price list is below.

Craft foam (1/2 sheet) $40
Felt (1/2 sheet) $40
Sponge $20
Plastic discs (10) $20
Paperclips (10) $20/$10
Coffee stirrers (10) $10
Cotton Balls (5) $10
Screen (per square inch) $10
Cheesecloth (per square inch) $5

All of our groups devised successful pavement models!  Here is one of the models: (my phone decided to stop taking photos after this - sorry!)  The other two groups had similar ideas - one was a full layer of sponges covered with a layer of felt, the other was a mixture of sponges & cotton balls with an overlay of felt.