Water Wheel

Materials:

• 2 plastic plates
• 6-8 ounce plastic cups
• 2-3 ounce plastic cups
• 1 dowel (approx. 12 inches long)
• string or ribbon masking tape

Materials for wheel base:

• about 6 milk or juice cartons (1/2 gallon, rectangular, waxed kind)

Directions:

1. Punch holes in center of plates and center of bottom of 3-oz. cups.
2. Place plates bottom to bottom, attaching them with rolled-up masking tape and also taping them around the inside edge.
3. Space 8-oz. cups around edge of the plate. Tape so that all cups catch water in the same direction. 
4. Put dowel through center of plates. Tape 3-oz. cups bottom to bottom. Put dowel through center of cups. The small cups act as a take-up reel. Tape a long piece of string or ribbon to the take-up reel.

To use the wheel:

1. Make 2 stacks of 3 milk or juice cartons laid on their sides. (Use more or fewer cartons depending on the depth of your sink.) Tape cartons together, preferably with duct tape.
2. Punch a hole in top carton of each stack and insert dowel ends into stacks. 
3. Place entire base/wheel set-up into sink and run water onto cups on wheel. As wheel turns, dowel and take-up reel should turn, too. (Tape plates or take-up cups to dowel if necessary.)

Partnership

The Tsongas Industrial History Center is an education partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Education and the National Park Service at Lowell National Historical Park.