With 15 water tanks scattered across Henry County, providing customers with more than 30 million gallons of finished drinking water storage, these critical structures are extremely relevant for teaching students about the water industry.

What better way, then, to demonstrate the daily challenges of a water utility than for the Henry County Water Authority (HCWA) to host the annual Georgia Model Water Tower Competition?

With safety protocols in place due to the current pandemic, the HCWA welcomed a number of Henry County Middle School students who submitted model water towers for judging in this past year’s competition. Water professionals from the HCWA recently announced the winners of the 2021 Henry County, Georgia Model Water Tower Competition.

The 2021 winners from Henry County Schools include:

•First Place – “The Pickle Tower” submitted by Dutchtown Middle School Students Cahleb Thornton, Shiv Patel, Kush Patel, and David Bui; teacher Debbie Sechrist.

•Second Place – the “Cup of Water” submitted by Chrisette Small from Austin Road Middle School; teacher Garynne Parks.

•Third Place – “Chug Away” submitted by Carter Ivey from Locust Grove Middle School; teacher Christy Collier.

•Best Interview & Presentation was awarded to “The Mushroom House,” submitted by Mina Nguyen, Vivian Tran, Alicia Truong, and Keyani Furtch, from Dutchtown Middle School.

•Best Engineering Design also was awarded to the aforementioned team from Dutchtown Middle School for “The Mushroom House.”

•Most Artistic Design was awarded to Caeden Henry, from Austin Road Middle School, for his “Senor Eggington” model water tower.

Winners received gift cards, t-shirts, and certificates of achievement for their award-winning entries. The competition was held virtually, as students dropped off their model towers at HCWA Headquarters for judging by the Authority’s staff, followed by interviews held virtually as well.

The purpose of the Georgia Model Water Tower Competition is to challenge Middle School students across the state to design and build functioning model water towers according to specific size and height requirements. The student towers are judged based on three primary criteria – structural efficiency, hydraulic efficiency, and design ingenuity. The towers may be designed and constructed from any materials, although students are rewarded for using creative designs and recycled materials, such as everyday household items.

The Henry County, Georgia Model Water Tower Competition is one of several regional competitions held across the state. The annual event, which reinforces STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curricula middle school students learn in the classroom, is sponsored by the Georgia Section of the American Water Works Association (GAWWA) and the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP).

“The greatest benefit of the competition is to make students more aware of the importance of reliable drinking water and water conservation, while introducing them to the various career opportunities we have in the water profession,” says Lindsey Sanders, HCWA Environmental Compliance Coordinator, who organized the event locally. “We were very pleased with the level of participation and the experiential learning that took place. We’re looking forward to continued growth of the event, as we are already planning for another successful competition next year.”