Students construct miniature water towers for competition

EAST COUNTY — Eleven-year-old George Carino tips his cowboy hat and looks over his project, a tree house-turned-water tower, quickly scanning for adjustments that need to be made before the judging begins.

He decides the integral part of his tower, a white tube the judges would later fill with water to test the storage capacity of his project, needs some adjusting. As he fidgets with the more than 18-inch-tall project, constructed of materials such as pieces of sticks and green paint, he smiles.

“I’m hoping for at least third (place) with this one,” he said. “But, I think I could win.”

The Haile Middle School sixth-grade student competed against more than 100 other middle and high school students in Manatee and Sarasota counties during the Region 10 American Water Works Association’s Model Water Tower Competition Jan. 25 at Manatee Technical Institute’s State Road 70 campus.

In hopes of educating children about the importance of appreciating where their water comes from, Seton Katz, chairman of the AWWA’s Youth Education Committee, helped create the event 11 years ago.

“When (children) turn on their water in the morning, they don’t realize the millions of dollars and hundreds of people it took to make that happen,” Katz said.

Katz, along with 15 AWWA employees, wanted to introduce students to concepts surrounding the water tower-building process, such as consideration of storage capacity, aesthetic value and cost.

Participating students had to construct water towers that met certain restrictions, both structurally and monetarily. The water-holding unit had to be 18 inches off the ground and be able to hold at least one gallon of water; in addition, students had to adhere to a $2 budget.

To ensure the towers complied with the competition’s guidelines, volunteers, most of whom have backgrounds in engineering, tested the projects, one at a time. Judges took away points for leaking, improper measurements and students spending too much money on their projects.

Braden River High School engineering instructor Gil Burlew, who has encouraged his students to participate and has attended the event for the last five years, stressed the importance of the competition and what it represents; he hopes the event will spread beyond the state’s borders.

“Students often take having water for granted,” Burlew said, “and, someday, it’s going to be a scarcity. We need to teach them about it now.”

Currently, more than eight other regions in Florida follow in the footsteps of the local AWWA chapter by hosting the same competition.

As George carried his tower to the first judging station, he looked over his creation one last time. His tree house won him first place in the middle-school division, proving a little bit — moss from his backyard and less than $1 spent on materials — can go a long way.

He took home a trophy, $200 and a better understanding of what goes into the creation of water towers, albeit on a small scale.

“These are phenomenal things for kids to learn,” Burlew said. “I wanted to see them going into their garages and pulling out materials there, and they did. The kids really get into it.”

WINNERS
East County winners of the 2014 Model Water Tower Competition:

Middle school division — First place: George Carino, Haile Middle School

High school division — First place: Breanna Trautweiler, Braden River High School; second place: Dolan Sipes, Braden River High School; most creative: Griffin Trautweiler, Braden River High School

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].