Prepared by Nancy Volk Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) Title: Swoosh: “The Power of Wind” 6/08/2011 Setting: Multi-­‐aged children, youth, young adult families at Galisano Children’s Hospital Participants will be able to: -­‐describe types of energy (potential, kinetic, mechanical, electrical, light) -­‐describe how the wind turbine works to lift masses -­‐describe how the wind turbine works to light a bulb, or run a motor -­‐determine which example completes more work -­‐ determine which example is more powerful -­‐ list factors affecting the wind turbine blades -­‐ design a set of blades to test Materials: Lighting balls (balls that when hit on the floor light up a sequence of flashes) Fan, wind turbine with the mass set up, wind turbine with the hub set up for testing blades, multi-­‐meter, wires, supplies for making wind turbine blades, scissors, tape, low temperature glue guns, Markers, hubs and dowels. • Start by discussing the terms potential, kinetic energy, electricity, light energy • Discuss the lighting ball and how it works-­‐ allow participants to experiment with the lighting balls • Observe the wind turbine operate and lift a cup with just a few masses • Discuss how the wind turbine works – discuss how wind turbines work in our area-­‐ include the start point of the sun causing unequal heating which produces the wind • Lift two different masses and ask which one completes more work. Discuss WORK as a force x a distance • Increase the power of the wind and have the same masses lifted more quickly – discuss power • Discuss factors that affect the spinning of the blades on the turbine • Have participants create their own blades to try with the turbine. Record the greatest Voltage reached for each example tried Summarize discussion points to conclude Feedback: The lesson worked very well with a multi-­‐aged group. The discussion about the lighted balls worked well with the trickle in factor of the session. The wind turbines were interesting and keeping the lesson moving along kept the attention of the crew of participants. Asking for volunteers to assist with tasks kept people engaged. A great deal of energy went into the creating of wind turbine blades. Each design was unique and required testing and revision to obtain the maximum output. The one turbine that created the highest most consistent voltage started by not operating at all. The angle of the blades was reset and it zipped into life. It was made out of paper plates shaped like tear drops and had three blades. Just a note that the participants got so engaged with their projects that they wanted to keep the hub and blades. We have created a way for participants to keep their blades in the future without their hubs due to the expense of the hubs. We have Styrofoam circles they can insert their dowels into that will hold these. This is more of a keep sake than a working model.