Power of Wind - Workshop Activities

Activities:

1). Wind speed measurement 

   a. Beaufort Scale - qualitative measures
   b. Anemometer measurements - quantitive measures

2). Engineering design (design a table sailboat)

   a. What is the challenge
   b. How have others solved this?
   c. What are the design criteria and constraints? Brainstorm possible solutions
   d. Which of the possilbe solutions do you choose?
   e. Build prototype
   f. How does it work? Test it
  g. How do you learn from the designs of others?
  h. How can you use your new ideas to improve your design?

3). Wind turbine design (use engineering design principles)

   a. Parts of a turbine
   b. How turbines work

4). Turbine blade design

   a. Test blades on electricity generating turbine
   b. Test blades on weightlifter turbine

Electrical generating turbine. Youth design blades and test them to see electricity production in volts. Youth also experiment with blade pitch and its effect on rotor speed and power output. This turbine has an 8:1 gear which increases the speed the generator.

Weight lifting turbine. Youth design wind turbine blades and test them to see how much weight their design can lift.  Youth can experiment with blade design and blade pitch to lift the most weight.  Designs differ in size shape and blade number. Metal Washers are used as weight. Some blades lift as few as one washer and other as many as 50. Blade design is important to wind turbine function. The best weight lifting design is rarely the best electricity generating design.

Power of Wind 4-H Projects*

Engineering Notebook
– Your engineering notebook may include sketches of designs, notes of engineering questions you have, or answers to questions posed within the project manual, pictures as you complete exercises within this project, or big ideas you have while participating in this project. The notebook submitted in this class should be a working engineering notebook, not a scrapbook. Please include your name, county, and age on the front cover.

Wind Poster
– Poster should exemplify one of the lessons learned in the Power of Wind project. Posters can be any size up to 28" by 22".

Mini Turbine Blade Energy Display

– Develop a pinwheel display that demonstrates the working power of wind. Follow guidelines on page 18 and 19 of your manual. Display should include a notebook description of the effectiveness of at least three different designs or materials. Please do not include pennies with your display.

Wind Art or Literature Written Piece
– Item should illustrate or represent wind turbines, wind power, or something from the power of wind curriculum, for example a pinwheelor item
may be original story or poem written by the exhibitor about wind

Wind as Energy Display
– Item should be the original design of the 4‐Her. Include the item, or a picture if item is in excess of 6’ tall or 2’ X 2’. Include a notebook of why the item was designed and how it harnesses the power of wind.

* These are projects from the Nebraska State Fair Fairbook.

Additional Resources

The Power of Wind - National 4-H Curriculum

Kidwind Project - Educational materials for teaching about wind and solar power.