Classroom Activities to Illustrate Concepts of Darcy’s Law and Hydraulic Conductivity

Teaching groundwater flow processes: connecting lecture to practical and field classes

“…-enhancement of student participation in lecture classes, for instance by showing videos (Gleeson et al, 2012) or introducing analogue aquifer/process models with simple demonstrations (Neupauer and Dennis, 2010;Rodhe, 2012).…”

“…Learner-centered features such as active learning teaching are present in most common inductive instructional methods such as problem-based or project-based methods (Prince and Felder, 2006) and collaborative learning (i.e. group work towards a common goal Millis and Cottell Jr., 1997). The introduction of learnercentered demonstrations, such as small experiments conducted with Darcy bottles or a plexiglass tank, to illustrate concepts associated to groundwater flow into lecture classes is reported to trigger sophisticated questions and discussions.…”

“…The introduction of learnercentered demonstrations, such as small experiments conducted with Darcy bottles or a plexiglass tank, to illustrate concepts associated to groundwater flow into lecture classes is reported to trigger sophisticated questions and discussions. Physical models may help to address quantitative aspects (such as order of magnitude of groundwater fluxes or hydrodynamic parameters) of hydrogeology education (Neupauer and Dennis, 2010;Rodhe, 2012). Numerical models may help to assess and visualize the influence of the parameters involved in hydrogeological processes such as velocity and concentration fields (Singha and Loheide II, 2011) or to address basic modeling concepts such as sensitivity…”

Discussion of “Classroom Activities to Illustrate Concepts of Darcy’s Law and Hydraulic Conductivity” by Roseanna M. Neupauer and Norman D. Dennis

“…The discussers would like to express their appreciation to the authors Neupauer and Dennis (2010) for representing classroom activities that are used to illustrate basic concepts of groundwater flow using a simple apparatus called Darcy bottle. In technical paper by Neupauer and Dennis (2010), although the used apparatus is simple and the tests are largely understandable, some points are unclear and need to be clarified.…”

“…In technical paper by Neupauer and Dennis (2010), although the used apparatus is simple and the tests are largely understandable, some points are unclear and need to be clarified. In discussed paper Darcy's law is introduced to students in a way to calculate the rate of change of one variable in relation to another (Carlton and Nicholls 2001).…”