Ingenuity, creativity and fun in learning won the day Saturday at the 4th Georgia Model Water Tower Competition at the Julian Smith Barbecue Pit.
“It took us about a year to get it off the ground,” said Leandra Collins, Augusta Utilities Public Information Officer, who coordinated the event. “This is our fourth year, and we have seen it grow each year.”
The Model Water Tower Competition is an educational program for middle-schoolers launched by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals to raise awareness of and interest in water resource engineering, treatment and conservation.
“The idea is to give them exposure to a water-based topic with something that’s fun,” said Augusta Utilities Director Wes Byne. “Piquing their interest, but then also having them build something.”
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Each year, Collins will distribute curriculum sheets to science teachers throughout Richmond County and determine their interest in participating. The teachers willing to commit to the project incorporate the science and mechanics of water towers in their lessons to prepare students to enter the contest.
This year, more than 30 students from Richmond Hill K-8, Hornsby Middle School, John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School and A. R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet School learned how to build functioning model water towers for competition.
“They get credit for using household products,” said Byne. “Anything you’ve got, it doesn’t cost you money and you can get extra credit for it. And so, as a result, you see a lot of innovative designs.”
The kids’ entries were scored for how well their towers were structured, and how they fare in a hydraulic test to see how long it takes a tower to fill and drain a gallon of water. There were awards for “Best Out of the Box” for artistic design, as well as Best Engineering and a Competitor’s Choice Award, alongside the top three overall winners. Cash prizes of $300, $200 and $100 were awarded to the first, second and third place winners respectively.
Callahan and Cecilia Holsten, 12, a twin brother and sister team from Davidson, won first place with their structure called Holsten Tower. Cecilia Holsten welcomed the challenge, though she says the hardest part getting a good handle on the procedures.
“So much of it was just learning to interpret and follow instructions,” she said. “But there was also engineering difficulties. It’s really just testing and finding out the right solution.”
While her brother agrees, finding that a key challenge was developing the prototype, he found the process fun overall, saying, “the best part was probably building it.”
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The Richmond County iteration of the program started over four years ago when Collins found out about the competition at an annual Georgia Association of Water Professionals conference. Excited by the idea, she brought it to her boss, the late Tom Wiedmeier, who was utilities director at the time.
“I’m a former Richmond County teacher, and a science geek,” she said. “I said to my director at the time, ‘I want to do this in Augusta.’ He said, ‘Well, do it.’ And there it was.”
The event is part of an overarching effort by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals toward a broader science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiative that includes similar, more sophisticated programs for high school students and even internships. Byne says that the Model Water Tower process might make its way into next year’s science fair curriculum.
“It’s an engagement program to kind of feed kids into the overall program,” said Byne. “Like everybody else, we’re trying to build up a more comprehensive STEM program and platform, trying to keep the middle school kids engaged.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
