Activity
Smithsonian Institution

Lemelson Centre: Spark!lab: Make Your Own Wind Turbine

For Students 3rd - 8th
A wind turbine is a machine that captures the force of the wind to produce electricity. Learn how to make a wind turbine as a student or as a teacher. An experiment can be downloaded.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Build Your Own Windmill Generator

For Students 9th - 10th
Build your own windmill and see how the wind can be converted into energy to produce electricity. This science fair project should help you understand the use of wind as a source of alternative energy. The Science Buddies project ideas...
Unit Plan
Practical Action

Practical Action: Wind Power Challenge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this unit, students explore how life for people in the rural mountainous regions of Peru is different as they live without access to electricity. They learn how small-scale wind turbines have changed people's lives, as with a supply...
Activity
Museum of Science

Museum of Science and Industry: Online Science: Activities: Build a Wind Turbine

For Students 3rd - 8th
Step-by-step instructions, with photos, of how to construct and test a wind turbine that produces energy. This experiment does require preparation as it uses PVC pipes, a small motor, and a multimeter, for example.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Engineer a Wind Powered Water Pump

For Students Pre-K - 1st
With this design challenge, students can build a wind-powered turbine that can pump water up from the ground. This site contains tips to complete the design challenge as well as a place for students to document their engineering design...
Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12 Exploration Series: Simulations: Physics: Wind Turbines

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Learn about the concept of efficiency as it relates to power generation at a wind turbine.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Power Your House With Wind

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn how engineers harness the energy of the wind to produce power by following the engineering design process as they prototype two types of wind turbines and test to see which works best. Students also learn how engineers...
Handout
US Energy Information Administration

U.s. Eia Energy Kids: Energy Timelines: Wind

For Students 9th - 10th
Timeline of key milestones in the use of wind as a source of energy.
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Catch the Breeze

For Teachers 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about windmills using wind power as a source of electricity. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Handout
American Geosciences Institute

American Geosciences Institute: Wind: Background

For Students 9th - 10th
A reference page on wind. Learn about the properties of air that allow wind to form as well as how wind is used to make energy. The page also describes the advantages and disadvantages to wind energy.
Handout
US Energy Information Administration

U.s. Eia Energy Kids: Renewable Energy: Wind

For Students 3rd - 8th
Mankind has used the wind as an energy source for thousands of years. Discover other ways the wind is used to make energy.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Renewable Energy Living Lab

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students become familiar with the online Renewable Energy Living Lab interface and access its real-world solar energy data to evaluate the potential for solar generation in various U.S. locations. They become familiar with where the most...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Thar She Blows!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn about wind as a source of renewable energy and explore the advantages and disadvantages wind turbines and wind farms. They also learn about the effectiveness of wind turbines in varying weather conditions and how engineers...
Website
US Department of Energy

U.s. Department of Energy: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

For Students 9th - 10th
Access to information, policy initiatives, advice, and analysis on issues of energy efficiency and renewable energy, from the U.S. Department of Energy. Its network is responsible for tracking the technological, economic, and...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design a Net Zero Energy Classroom

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students create a concept design of their very own net-zero energy classroom by pasting renewable energy and energy-efficiency items into and around a pretend classroom on a sheet of paper. They learn how these items (such as solar...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Sailing on the Wind

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
This is a hands-on lesson that uses science and the steps of the Engineering Design Process to determine important properties in sail design materials and learn how to harness wind power. Students will learn that a problem can be solved...
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Ninth Literature and Comp: Animal Farm by George Orwell

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson focuses on the reading of Animal Farm by George Orwell. It provides links to a study guide and an online text of the novel. It lists The Seven Commandments, Animal Farm's original Constitution and reminds students to pay...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy Sources Research

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Fact sheets are provided for several different energy resources as a starting point for students to conduct literature research on the way these systems work and their various pros and cons. Students complete a worksheet for homework or...
Website
Weather Wiz Kids

Weather Wiz Kids: Wind

For Students Pre-K - 1st
What is wind? How is it caused? This site offers simple answers to many common questions about wind as well as a chart of the Beaufort scale, which "is an empirical measure for the intensity of the weather based mainly on wind power."
Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Energy Through Time

For Students 9th - 10th
The quest for energy has always been a balancing act. As humans have gained greater control over their environment, they've found abundant resources - and faced numerous challenges. This article traces the history of our quest for energy.
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Introduction to Potential and Kinetic Energy

For Students 9th - 10th
Energy is the ability of a system to do work. That system may be batteries powering an electronic game system or windmills capturing wind energy to power a city. When an object or an organism does work, energy is transferred to another...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineering for the Earth

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young students are introduced to the complex systems of the Earth through numerous lessons on its natural resources, processes, weather, climate and landforms. Key earth science topics include rocks, soils and minerals, water and natural...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Through nine lessons, students are introduced to a range of energy types--electrical, light, sound and thermal-as well as the renewable energy sources of wind, hydro (water) and solar power. Subjects range from understanding that the...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Tireless Tides: Extracting Energy From Ocean Tides

For Students 6th - 8th
Renewable energy is the energy that is extracted from natural sources, such the Sun (solar), earth (geothermal), wind, and water (hydropower). These sources are renewable because they can be replenished by the same natural sources within...