The Great AHS Engine Project

For the past ten or eleven years physics students at Athens High School have designed and tested engines as a part of their unit of study on work, energy, and efficiency. The goal of the project is to engage the students in direct consideration of what an engine is and how it transforms some sort of input energy into useful work. Students have constructed steam engines and water wheels, power boats and wind generators. In so doing they have had to grapple not only with the physics concepts involved but also with the problems of seeing a design through to completion.

In the last several years the students have brought their finished projects to Morrison Elementary School to share with their First Grade Science Buddies in Mrs. Naomi Stork's class. Explaining how their devices work and demonstrating their operation to the first graders prods the physics students to be certain they fully understand the principles of operation themselves.