For our field trip we went on a short tour of the dam and then went to the fish hatchery on the Oregon side. The fish hatchery had a machine that would push the fish into the spawning tanks. Spawning is another way to say laying eggs. It was funny to watch because they kept swimming banging their heads into the wooden doors because they think they're in a stream, and wanted to keep swimming upstream.
This tour was different than most of the ones I've been on in dams. Usually we look at and talk about the power generation of the dam and watch the turbines hummmmmm. This time we didn't even get to watch the Dam movie! If I was there independently I would have wanted to get scuba gear and go through the fish ladder. If I was indestructible it would be fun to go through the turbines to see how they work too.
4 comments:
I think seeing the turbines work under water would be great too.
Jonny,
Old Guy here. Flying through a turbine would be neat if it didn't chop you into hamburger.
You mention that going through the turbine would let you "see how they work." Engineers do this seeing with imagination. So, let you imagination grow as you do. Many adults try to stop their imagination from growing (sounds stupid doesn't it?). Unfortunately, many adults succeed. Don't let any of them tell you that being adult means to stop pretending.
Old Guy.
Old Guy-Lots of adults think they can't pretend because what they do is serious. Are there people who have to pretend or use their imagination for work other than just engineers?
Jonny,
Your question, "Are there people who have to pretend or use their imagination for work other than just engineers" is a good one. The answer is yet. In fact lots of job require imagination. Doctors use their imagination (not quite pretend) to create an educated guess at what sickness a person has based on their symptoms. "...Um, let's see, the patient has a sore throat, swolen eyes, and a neck ache...that could be this or this or that. How am I going to figure which one of those it is?"
Business people use their imaginations, "I wonder how a customer would like this feature in their new phone?" Even good sales people use their imagination, "hmmmmmm, how can I figure out what this customer really wants?"
So, let's refine a few terms. We use the term "pretend" to mean imagining things that simply cannot happen, usually in a story. Notice that we use the imagination to pretend. We use the word "speculate" to mean imagining what might have happened, or what might be the cause of something. Again, notice that we use our imagination to speculate.
The list goes on and on. The imagination is the part of our thinking where we put ideas together to "see" if they will fit. So, imagination is used in any thinking where you're not sure what the answer should be.
Old Guy.
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