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Wind Power: A Hands-on Experience

A table covered in boxes and 4 handmade wind turbine models; one has 2 rectangular green blades, one has 4 white blades, one has no blades, and the smallest has a red 3 blade propeller. Behind the red turbine is a blue box with white writing that reads "Wind-opoly"
Learning Goals

Learning Goals:

  1. Students will understand that wind energy can be converted into other forms of energy.
  2. Students will determine different methods to increase the effectiveness of a wind turbine blade at harnessing and converting the mechanical energy of the wind.
Materials List

Handouts

Classroom Supplies

  • Pencils
  • Box fan

Group Supplies (2-4 per group)

  • Recharge Labs firefly classroom pack (example)
  • 10 unsharpened pencils to be used as handles
  • Several 4″x4″ pieces of cardstock

Important Links

Lesson 3 of 5 / Time: 2 hours

This lesson challenges students to work in teams to design successful turbine blades for the “KidWind Firefly”. The firefly has an LED light that lights up when the students have designed turbine blades that spin effectively. This lesson provides students with hands-on experience in designing turbine blades. This will scaffold them nicely into Let’s Build Our Wind and Solar Energy Toy when they design their own paper turbine for a Solar Updraft Tower toy.

 

Solar Updraft Towers

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