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Wind Power

Ever been swept off your feet by the wind? Wind power is a great source of renewable energy. This means, since we will always have wind on Earth, we can’t use it all up! Make your own miniature wind turbine to see how they work to generate energy.

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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)?
  • 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