Plan
- What materials do you plan to use?
- How can you best capture the wind’s energy?
- What is similar and different between historical windmills, and current windmills?
Do
- Create a study windmill tower out of cardboard and the paper towel roll.
- Create the windmill blades out of cardboard.
- Attach the windmill blades to your tower with the skewer. Ensure the windmill blades rotates freely.
- Create a lift by tying string to the back of your windmill blade system. When the blades rotate, it should lift up some of the weights – illustrating the power of wind.
Review
- How could you improve your windmill design?
- What else could your windmill be used for?
- How could you store the wind energy for future use (and not immediate use)?
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Remember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map
Materials
- Cardboard
- Empty Paper Towel Roll
- Skewer
- Straw
- Scissors
- Tape
- String
- Weight (marbles or other item)
Keep it Simple
- For an easier experiment, remove the lift system and focus on making a windmill that spins in the wind. Discuss how this energy could be harnessed for accomplishing a certain goal.
Take it Further
- Try harnessing the wind in a different way – create your own model sailboat design.
