ABSTRACT
Have you ever tried making a water clock from pieces of wood left over from renovation, a plastic spoon, a yogurt carton and bits and pieces of string? At the suggestion of their teacher, the first author constructed such a device—with the help of the directions in a junior science guide—and took it to the combined grade three and four class in which the two authors were collaborating in a study of the grade three students as they worked on the theme of time. When it was finally set up, the teacher asked some of the children who had been watching to demonstrate how it worked to the rest of the class. Unfortunately, it failed to work as expected. However, suggestions for fixing it were not slow in coming and soon an animated discussion was in full swing, as competing proposals were put forward, justified and evaluated. By the end of the day, some of the most enthusiastic engineers had succeeded in making it work.
