Students Experience Hydroelectric Power in Action
by Heidi Rethmeier
September 24, 2009
Electricity and water are generally a bad mixture, unless you’re
using the movement of the water to turn a giant electromagnet which
generates electricity. That’s what Designing with Technology
students learned about on their recent trip to the Gavin’s Point
Power Plant. The river has enough force to spin massive turbine
blades (approximately 8 ft by 10 ft each) which turn the
electromagnets and produce enough electrical energy to power the
entire facility and for approximately 65,000 people annually.
Students had the opportunity to feel the containers where the
electromagnets spin and watch the shaft spin that’s connected to
the turbine blades. The tour was the highlight of our electricity
studies which also included building a speaker using electromagnet
concepts and experimenting with the effects of voltage, current,
and resistance.
Hydroelectric power is just one mission of the dam. Others include
flood damage control and managing the ecosystems both upstream and
downstream in conjunction with other dams along the Missouri River.
We also spent some time watching the many and varied fish that we
don’t see very often like the paddlefish and sturgeon. The tour was
a great experience on a beautiful September day.
