See the Wind

 

Using kites and caution tape you can help your students see the difference in the speed and smoothness of the wind at different altitudes above the earth.

 

This is especially important for wind engineers as they want to place their wind turbines in the fastest and smoothest winds in the atmosphere.

 

Helpful Links/Materials for this Lesson

Wind Maps

AWS Truewind - AWS Truewind is a company that creates wind maps. Some of the maps they create are clickable so you can get wind data right over your school or house which is neat!

Wind Powering America : Department of Energy - Windpowering America is a program by the Department of Energy to promote wind. A very informative site that includes some wind maps.

Wind Turbulence & Shear

WindPower.org : Shear | Turbulence - Windpower.org is a Danish website with piles of wind energy information. It can get quite technical but is definitely thorough. They also have a kid section called Wind with Miller that is excellent.

Rainbow Power Company - This is a neat site that has a very easy to read section on why wind speed and shear are big issues when siting wind turbines. They also have some very nice pictures.