Students will use a small wind turbine called a Firefly to understand how rotational movement can be used to convert wind power into electrical energy, which can power a load light like a light. Using the engineering design process and the scientific method, students will generate as much electricity as possible from their wind wheel designs.
The Details
Materials
- Tubing
- Pencil
- Propeller
- LED lights
- Acorn hex nuts
- Nacelle
- Screw hubs
- Generator
- Rulers
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Pencil sharpener
- 20″x20″ standard box fans
- Cardstock print outs of wind wheel templates
Next Generation Science Standards
Cross-Cutting Concepts
- Cause & Effect
- Energy & Matter
- Patterns
Disciplinary Core Ideas
- ES-ETS1.A | MS-ETS1.A Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems
- ES-ETS1.B | MS-ETS1.B Developing Possible Solutions
- ES-ETS1.C | MS-ETS1.C Optimizing the Design Solution
- ES-PS2.A | MS-PS2.A Forces and Motion
- ES-PS2.B | MS-PS2.B Types of Interactions
- ES-PS3.A | MS-PS3.A Definitions of Energy
- ES-PS3.B | MS-PS3.B Conservation of Energy
- ES-PS3.C | MS-PS3.C Relationship Between Energy and Forces
Learning Objectives
- Know the fundamental parts of a wind turbine
- Be able to use the engineering design process and the scientific method to isolate and adjust variables while designing and testing wind wheels
- Understand energy conversions and transfers, and how a wind turbine converts moving air into electrical energy
- Design a Wind Wheel for the Firefly wind turbine that can light up an LED