Project Overview

As part of a yearlong study of public art, sixth grade students at Genesee Community Charter School in Rochester, New York learned about the importance of water in the development of civilization. Students investigated how people have found ways to control water throughout history, and the inventions they created, from the Grand Canal in China’s Song Dynasty to more contemporary inventions such as the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland. The two guiding questions were “How have civilizations manipulated water?” and “How is water important to a civilization?”

As a class, they studied four water-related inventions relating to canals: The Falkirk Wheel, The Double Lock, The Archimedian Screw, and The Roman Aqueduct. Each student then chose a water-related invention to research. The inventions the students chose are charted on a timeline in the introduction to the book, and each entry in the book is presented chronologically with sixteen different entries. Sources are cited for each entry, and entries are illustrated with photographs of the inventors and the inventions themselves. Students also created three-dimensional models that demonstrated a particular water-controlling mechanism, such as a lock or an aqueduct.