One of the challenges in introducing chemical engineering to high school students or entering freshman is to give them a concrete picture of the types of problems chemical engineers solve. It is difficult to develop experiments or demonstrations that are relevant to students with limited knowledge, safe for students, fun, and effective. For the past two years, I have required students in the freshman chemical engineering course at Kansas State University to engage in a semester-long team project in which they design and build a water gun. I have also used this project in a summer program that exposes junior high and high school young women to science and engineering. Students are required to build a water gun that shoots water as far as possible, powered only by hand. They are allowed to use no more than 10% of an existing water gun to build this water gun. This project forces students to think about many concepts relevant to chemical engineering. Students have to consider flow, friction, momentum transfer, and PVT behavior of gases in their design. In addition, they need to incorporate valves, switches, and nozzles into their water gun, providing some hands-on experience with process equipment. Furthermore, this project engages students in a true team design experience. The response to this activity has been extremely positive. Students have been very successful in building water guns that rival or are superior to commercial water guns. For example, the best design in 2006 shot water seventy feet. A semester-end survey also indicated that students valued the project as a way of getting a better understanding of chemical engineering. They also rated it as their favorite activity in the course.

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