Kids Win at KidWind Challenge!

Guest Blog Post by Tessa Palazzolo, Mechanical Engineering at NAU

On November 13th, three schools competed in the second ever KidWind Challenge wind turbine design competition. Little Singer Community School, Coconino High School and Northland Preparatory Academy arrived with a total of 14 teams eager and ready to compete. The students were scored based on their wind turbine power output and their overall knowledge on wind energy, along with real life applications of the wind farm industry.

Students from Little Singer Community School with their wind turbine. Photo courtesy of Kiril Kirkov.

The event consisted of other ongoing challenges such as sail car designs, energy principle questions in jeopardy, and testing out the Human Powered Vehicle (HVP) designed by NAU’s American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  The NAU ASME volunteers were also present at the competition to engage in questions related to college and the guidelines of becoming an engineer with the students. The overall experience of the KidWind Challenge provides a learning experience in hands-on creativity and allowing the students to be inspired with science, engineering and renewable energy.

Coconino High School team with their turbine design. Photo courtesy of Kiril Kirkov.

The Little Singer 5th and 6th grade students were led by teacher Tom Tomas, and were doing an entire unit that incorporated literacy as well as engineering. Students are reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, by William Kamkwamba (with Bryan Mealer) that shares the remarkable story of his youth in Malawi, Africa—a  nation crippled by intense poverty - and how, with tenacity and imagination, he built a better life for himself, his family, and his village.

Little Singer students incorportated literacy and the study of biomimicry into their engineering design challenge. Note the turbine blades based off designs from living organisms.

The students are also studying biomimicry, an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies. You can see the biologic patterns in their blade designs above and below.

Teacher Tom Tomas shows the penguin wing that serves as a model for the "Turbine Feat by Happy Feet" team. This team eventually won first place with the plastic blades on the turbine in the photo.

A big STEM City Thank you to Project Director Karin Wadsack, Lead Organizer Tessa Palazzolo and all the ASME students at NAU that came out to help! Also, thank you to the Boys and Girls Club of Flagstaff for hosting the KidWind Challenge again!

From top left: Wind for Schools Project Director Karin Wadsack, CHS student with turbine, and below showing the gearing on the turbine, and Little Singer student assisting with the sound for Kiril Kirkov's interviews with Little Singer students and parents.

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