KidWind
KidWind is a hands-on and interdisciplinary
wind energy curriculum that prepares
students for careers in science, technology
and engineering. It is currently being used
successfully in Southeast and Southcentral,
but not in Southwest, despite the region's
expanding use of wind energy.
KidWind students build their own wind
turbines, either from a kit or from scratch,
teaching them about math, electricity,
engineering, physics and weather. Schools
can compete to build the most efficient
turbines
in
the
state-wide
KidWind
Challenge. The turbines they build are fully functional and employ the same principals as those used to power homes
and cities.
One of the program's greatest benefits is its scalability. At the elementary level, a class can build a kit and learn about
mechanical and electrical energy, while a high school team may learn real-world engineering and problem solving
skills by building a turbine from scratch.
A completed turbine is also an effective platform to expand to more lessons. KidWind has kits and lesson plans for
building machines powered by the turbine, like a water pump or battery charger, and many other energy experiments
are possible.
The kits start at $90 and include everything students need to build an electricity generating wind turbine, except for
the wind, which can come from fans or nature. KidWind and other companies also make components and
experiments, some of which are listed below, to add onto the turbine.
Teacher Resources
KidWind Lessons & Resources
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The Alaska KidWind Challenge:
Alaska Center for Energy and Power
Renewable Energy Alaska Project
Concepts
Energy
A wind turbine converts the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical energy. The mechanical energy can grind
grain, as in a windmill, pump water or produce electricity through a generator.
Students can build on the KidWind kit to lift weights and pump water, as well as generate electricity.
Electricity
The spinning turbine generates electricity in the same manner as full size wind farms,
familiarizing students with the technologies that power their communities.
The
concepts students learn by building KidWind are also applicable to other methods of
power generation; hydroelectric, geothermal, fossil fuels and nuclear work along the
same principal. Though they each use different energy sources to turn a turbine, it is the
Magnetic field
motion of the turbine that ultimately generates electricity.
Essentially, electricity is generated when a magnetic field moves in
proximity to a conductive wire. This is what happens inside a DC motor,
which is what the KidWind kit uses, and if someone were to instead attach
a power source to the motor, the turbine would turn like a fan. Circuits with
a power source, such as a battery charging circuit, use a diode to ensure
Diode
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the electricity flows in only one direction: from the turbine to the battery.
Components
Blades
The turbine's blades significantly affect performance. Students can design their own blades out of the heavy
cardstock, balsa wood and corrugated plastic included the kit, or from other materials. With the kit it is easy to swap
out blades or change their angle, so classes can experiment to find the most effective designs.
KidWind Challenge participants have made blades out of a huge variety of materials: feathers, aluminum sheet,
papier-mâché, carved wood, fiberglass, 3D printed plastic and more. Blade design is one of the most flexible and
challenging parts of the project, and even on large scale turbines, there is great diversity and constant evolution in the
blades’ design.
Generator
All KidWind kits come with a generator (a
permanent magnet DC motor) to generate
electricity. By building their own, however,
students can learn about how electricity is
created.
ALTurbine GenPack - This kit allows
students to build their own generators
from wire and magnets for the ALTurbine.
It may be ordered together with the
turbine.
Wind Belt - This kit builds an alternative
type of wind generator. Rather than using
a turbine, the wind vibrates a magnetic
belt to generate electricity.
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Gearing
The kit has several gears of different sizes to experiment with
different gear ratios and observe their effect on torque and
rotational speed. Gears from other machines, a chain or belt drive
can also be used.
The torque and rotational speed may be roughly determined with a
multimeter, which is supplied in the kit, since they correspond to
the generator’s current and voltage output.
Structure
The kit includes a wood and plastic base, but as with every other
component, students can make their own. The Systems Engineering class at Haines High School, for example, built a
welded frame for last year's KidWind Challenge (video).
Battery Charger
As with large scale wind generators, KidWind turbines can charge batteries. Of course, they don't produce large
enough quantities of energy for many practical applications, but students can still build a battery charger to learn
about electrical circuits and power other small projects, like a flashlight or small robot.
KidWind produces a battery charging kit, but a simple charging circuit can also be made from scratch using a few
basic components.
Electric Power Transmission
Though KidWind works on a small scale, classes can experiment with different gauges, lengths, and materials of wire
to learn how these factors affect the flow of electricity.
Wind
A simple, but powerful, wind tunnel can be built from several box fans, and classes can make more robust turbines to
use outdoors.
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Wind speed is measured with an anemometer, which can be used to calculate the efficiency of students’ turbines.
Commercial models generally cost at least $70, but students can also make their own with a ping pong ball
suspended beneath a protractor. The angle of the dangling ping pong ball in the wind indicates its speed.
Beyond KidWind
KidWind is an excellent introduction to wind energy, electricity and engineering. More advanced classes can build on
previous lessons by designing larger and more powerful turbines, even ones that provide useful energy. This small
turbine project from Make Magazine, for example, could charge a bank of marine batteries, which, when coupled with
an inverter, could power lights or appliances.
Wind for Schools
Wind for Schools is a US Department of Energy program to deploy small wind turbines at schools around the country.
It includes teaching materials that work well with KidWind.
More information on the Alaska Wind for Schools Program can be found on ACEP's website.
AK Energy Smart
AK Energy Smart is a new, Alaska specific K-12 curriculum developed by ACEP and REAP. It aims to make students
consider the sources of their energy and how they use it.
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