Anita Yasuda - Canals and Dams!: With 25 Science Projects for Kids

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Have you ever traveled down a river in a boat? Rivers are very useful for getting people and things from one place to another. But what if there is no natural river flowing where people and things need to travel? One solution is to dig a canal !

A canal is a manmade channel of water. Often, youll find canals working together with dams . Canals and dams are both structures that change the flow of water. This is useful for transportation, producing electricity, and getting water where its needed.

WORDS TO KNOW

canal: a manmade channel used to deliver water.

dam: a wall, usually built across moving water, that holds some of it back.

structure: something that is built, such as a building, bridge, or tunnel.

engineering: using science, math, and creativity to design and build things.

irrigation: moving water through canals, ditches, or tunnels to water crops.

Canals and dams often work together as part of a system. One allows water to flow and the other stops water from flowing.

Have you ever heard of the Hoover Dam? This dam supplies 1.3 million people in Nevada, Arizona, and California with electricity. It sends water to people hundreds of miles away. Its as tall as a 60-story building! The Hoover Dam is an engineering marvel that is part of a system of canals and dams that allowed many of the great cities of the American Southwest to grow and thrive.

WHAT ARE CANALS?

A canal is built to move water from one place to another or to connect two bodies of water. Why would you want to do this?

Sometimes, people live far away from the water they need. Canals can bring water to farms, which can be used for irrigation to grow crops. Farm animals also need water. Canals can bring water to cities so people living there have water to drink and bathe in.

THE ALL-AMERICAN CANAL

(CREDIT: CHARLES OREAR, NATIONAL ARCHIVES)

For example, water from the Colorado River is brought by the All-American Canal from the Imperial Dam in Arizona to Californias Imperial Valley. The valley has some of the most important farmland in the state. Approximately 75 different types of crops are grown there.

If you have a sip of tap water at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, it might have come from the Colorado River. Or it might have traveled all the way from the north of the state through a system of canals.

Canals are also built to link two bodies of water. This can make it easier for ships to get from one place to another. Before the Panama Canal was built in 1914, ships had to travel thousands of miles all the way around the tip of South America.

Going around South America was the only way to get between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Now, using the Panama Canal, ships can cut across Panama, traveling the 48 miles in just 8 to 10 hours.

WORDS TO KNOW

reservoir: an artificial lake used for storing water.

WHAT ARE DAMS?

A dam is an incredibly useful type of wall. It slows or holds back the flow of water. A dam is usually built across a river or a stream. As the dam slows the water down, an artificial lake forms behind it. This lake is called a reservoir .