Capturing the Wind

In the study of wind energy, scholars build a small windmill and observe how it transfers wind into mechanical energy. Learners will make connections to the previous lesson with concepts such as the creation of wind through convection.

A wind turbine is essentially just a giant pinwheel, right? Individuals first create pinwheels from paper, pins, and pencils. In groups, they model a wind farm along a coast and then test out their designs using an electric fan.

Middle schoolers explore how wind causes soil erosion. Students spread topsoil into a pie pan. Middle schoolers take turns blowing air over it and record results. Students repeat this experiment including green sponges. In this science...

Students build a device that captures and carries a pet rat safely back to its cage with out "harming" the rat or themselves. They build and experiment with wind-up or battery operated rat cat toys after predicting the outcome of their...

Students study the basic components of a modern wind machine.  In this investigative activity students investigate and find out if there are any wind machines in their state, how many and how much power they produce. 

An impressive animation explains the earth's awe-inspiring auroras. The contributions of high-energy particles from the sun collide with our neutral atmospheric atoms. Explained are the roles of solar wind, plasma, the magnetosphere,...

Learners design a way to store wind energy. In this environmental engineering lesson, students discover the various ways in which windmills transform wind energy into usable energy for other things. In small groups, learners create a...

Students investigate the costs and benefits of switching their school to sustainable technology energy production. They use software called HOMER developed by the National Renewable Energy Lab to do the cost/ benefit analysis. They then...

Learners discover how to capture the speed of wind. In this science activity lesson plan, students gather materials and follow procedures to create an anemometer to measure wind speed.

A high-quality video camera is focused on some trees in a deciduous forest, and an entire year is captured in time-lapse photography in this two-minute video. The only sounds in the video are the sounds of the birds and the wind in the...