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Let’s Build Our Wind and Solar Energy Toy

A photo with paper pinwheel floating over a tower of 3 tin cans that are taped together. The cans are supported by two thick text books that are separated by ~2".
Learning Goals

Learning Goals:

  1. Students will determine that thermal energy resulting from the sun’s radiation can create an updraft that will power a turbine to spin.
  2. Students will identify characteristics of turbine design that improve the success of their device.
  3. Students will utilize content from previous phenomena they investigated, such as the chimney stack effect and Swedish candle toys, to determine how to best harness the energy transformed by their device from the sun.
Materials List

Handouts

Classroom Supplies

  • Tin cans with tops and bottoms cut out
  • Tall plastic or paper cups
  • Paper (black, white, and colored)
  • Foil pieces
  • Plain paper for turbines
  • Paper clips
  • Sharp, pointy things (e.g. thumbtacks and needles)
  • Tape
  • Small metal caps for the pin to spin in
  • 250W halogen work lights as a sun model

Group Supplies (2-3 per group)

  • 1 Bamboo stick
  • 1 Small ball of modeling clay

Important Links

Lesson 4 of 5 / Time: 3 hours

Students will combine what they learned in previous lessons using their investigations of convection-related phenomena to design a device that will convert light energy from the sun into thermal energy and utilize the resulting convection currents. Their primary objective will be to design a device that uses energy from the sun when placed on a sidewalk to spin a turbine similar to the one they designed for their Firefly in Wind Power: A Hands-on Experience.

 

Solar Updraft Towers

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