Allyson Gray

EDEL 450
Changing Our Educational Swirl
Growing up, I was taught that water swirled down the drain based on the earth’s rotation and

the hemisphere you’re located in. The article Science 101: Why Does Water Swirl When it Goes

Down a Drain by Matt Bobrowsky challenges this belief and prevented me for teaching my

future students the same naïve understanding. The article targets this common misconception

and teaches students the concept of angular momentum.

Bobrowsky sequenced his lesson according to the ‘5E Learning Cycle’ discussed in Teaching

Science to Every Child by John Settlage and Sherry A. Southerland. First, the teacher ‘engages’

the students by “[tapping] into student backgrounds as a way to lead into the topic” (Settlage &

Southerland, p. 220). The teacher poses the elicit questions ‘Why does water swirl when it goes

down the drain?’ and ‘What causes the water to swirl in a direction?’ The teacher uses these

questions to tap into students’ prior knowledge. For example, like myself, some students may

think the ‘Coriolis effect’ impacts the direction in which water swirls. Second, the teacher

allows students to ‘explore’ by having them “investigate a question with others by using concrete

materials” (Settlage & Southlander, p. 220). Bobrowsky suggests having students fill a sink with

water then stirring the water in one direction and waiting until the water is barely moving.

Students then open the drain and watch as the water swirls in the direction they were moving it.

Next, students ‘explain’ and “use their finding to develop an explanation” (Settlage &

Southlander, p. 220). Students communication about and try to make meaning of the experiment

then the teacher explains the concept of angular momentum and its equation, “Angular

momentum = mass x size x speed” (Bobrowsky, p. 68). After introducing the scientific concept,

students ‘extend’ their knowledge and “apply this understanding to a new situation” (Settlage &
Southlander, p. 225). Bobrowsky includes the following situations in his article: an ice skater,

hurricanes, tetherball, gymnasts, divers, and comets (Bobrowsky, p. 69 & 72). The article

suggests two activities in which teachers can further explain the effects of angular momentum as

water down a drain and as an ice-skater. In one activity, the teacher spins in a swivel chair with

weights. In the other, the teacher creates an apparatus using a ball, sting, and PVC pipe. Finally,

although the article does not give formal examples of ‘evaluation,’ it does offer questions that

could be asked to students throughout the lesson. Teachers can have students reflect by asking,

“When the spinning ice skater starts to pull in her arms and leg, which of those [mass, size, and

speed] change and which stay the same? Does her mass change? Does her size change?”

Teachers could enhance this lesson by having students draw and label as a way of collecting data

from the experiment and two activities mentioned in the article. Teachers could then use these as

an informal assessment.

I appreciated this article and its lesson sequence because it offered a strong example of how a

science lesson should progress according to the learning cycle. As well as following the ‘5E

Learning Cycle,’ the article also matched second-grade science standards. Teachers could use

this lesson to teacher “Standard 2.S.1: The student will use the science and engineering practices,

including the processes and skills of scientific inquiry, to develop understandings of science

content” (Zais, p. 19). They could also use this lesson as an introduction to “Standard 2.P.4: The

student will demonstrate an understanding of the effects of pushes, pulls, and friction on the

motion of objects” (Zais, p. 23).

This article changed the direction of how my own education was swirling. Many students,

like myself, may have a naïve understanding of how water swirls down a drain. As well as

following state standards, Bobrovsky’s article provides teachers with a wonderful example of
how to create lessons using the ‘5E Learning Cycle.’ His lesson also includes activities that will

fully engage students and could be used to easily transition into other standard based lessons.

Works Cited

Bobrowsky, M. (2019). Science 101: Why Does Water Swirl When it Goes Down Drain. Science

& Children, 68-72. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.pallas2.tcl.sc.edu

 /ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=e350b9cb-51b6-478e-9096-

d946bd486cc4@pdc-v-sessmgr06

Zais, M. (n.d.). SOUTH CAROLINA ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE

INDICATORS FOR SCIENCE [PDF]. Columbia: South Carolina Department of

Education.

Settlage, J., & Southerland, S. A. (2012). Teaching Science to Every Child: Using Culture as a

Starting Point (Second ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.