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Building Classroom Wind Turbines
The best way to learn
more about the science behind electrical generating wind turbines is to
build some small models and start doing some experiments.
The easiest and
most interesting place to start experimenting is on the blades.
Students can spend a great deal of time setting up experiments and
testing a wide number of variables by examining blades. To see how
this might work check out our blade challenge lesson.
To do some basic
experiments you need to build a few classroom modes for testing. Try
some of these below...
Also read our
short electrical output page to get a little better understand what your wind turbine is
doing>>
Super Simple
Turbines (Quick & Easy)
Simple Turbines
(Quick, but not so easy!)
Different Types
of Turbines
(Different types, non electrical generating, harder to build)
Advanced DIY Wind Turbines
Comercial
Kits (These cost money --- but might save time!)
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General Windmill Parts
& Materials
The most challenging, and rewarding aspect, of this curriculum is
watching students construct and test their own windmills. Students and
teachers learn quickly that getting everything to work, and work well,
is a project in patience. The most satisfying part is of these
lessons is when students finally get something that works. They are
ecstatic!
In my classes students have used everything from Legos, Tinker Toys and
K'nex to popsicle sticks, soup cans and aluminum pie tins. I have seen
windmills that are vertical, horizontal and even sideways. But one
thing always remains the same. Student windmills always produce some
energy. In fact, you can’t pass the unit if your windmill does not
produce just a little bit of energy!
As I mentioned before if you want begin with highly regulated
experiments that are easily comparable then help students build their
windmills out of similar materials (like the PVC Turbines) as this will provide a much easier
basis for comparison.
Electrical Materials
You will need to do some
basic soldering to connect wires to motors. The multimeters and
alligator clips are used to hook up the measuring devices. As
understanding the electrical output can be confusing read more about it
here >>
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motors
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solder,
wires, alligator clips, etc.
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box fans (One at each wind station)
Building Materials
This list depends on what types of windmills you are going to build. If
you are all going to build similar models then you can keep it simple.
If you are looking for lots of variability then you can open things up.
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tinker
toys, k'nex, legos – these can be expensive check
Ebay
or yard sales for great deals
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scrap wood, PVC pipes and connectors, popsicle sticks,
poster board, fabric, building "junk"
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construction tools – hammers, small saws,
exacto knifes, glue guns
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safety
goggles
Other neat testing materials
(Not required but sure are
neat!)
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handheld wind speed meter (Kestrel,
Inspeed)
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computers for graphing, simulations, etc.
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tachometer to measure blade rotational speeds.
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