I hear it I forget. I see it I remember. I do it I understand. This is the mantra that I try to live by in teaching what KidWind is all about to coaches and students. Take the picture above for example. Most people would see this and say, "Oh, that's a windmill." From a teaching standpoint the questions might be, "What does it do? How do you get it up there?..."
A diagram like this might be in order to show the layout for the guy wires and what it looks like before the tower is raised. This whole process would take only a few minutes and make for small talk in passing. What I would call a "snack" in the world of education on the way to teaching a bit about renewable energy to a classroom of students.
In my mind KidWind is more about providing a "feast" for young students minds and hands to learn and understand what is being taught. This was the case for 24 high school seniors taking part in a two week on campus experience a few weeks ago that I worked with for a day at the UW Madison Wisconsin Energy Institute. Thanks to Allison Binder and Scott Williams invitation to help out.
The morning started out with groups of six students getting familiar with the rigging, terminology and process involved in raising a table top model wind turbine layedout in kit form like this. Everything was covered from a call to diggers hotline and wearing safety helmets. Safety was important from start to finish. The model generator was mounted, raised and tested for output lighting a small LED.
At the end of the hour each group had gone through the process twice. Once without the turbine to prove out the cable system and make any adjustments before mounting the generator to the tower. Finally their model turbine was raised by a small hand cranked winch and looked like this.
OK time to put what was learned in the morning into practice on the real thing.
After lunch it was time for the real thing. In groups of 12 they rigged the 9 meter tower and gin pole with a 300 watt Air-X generator for raising. Just like the learned with the practice model the tower was first raised without the turbine to prove out the rigging and make any necessary adjustments.
Mission accomplished! Now if you have or know of a group that would like to get this same firsthand learning experience let me know and we can plan it out. Learn about the future of Renewable Energy today!
Imagine the response these students gave on their first day back in school, to the age old question, "So what did you do over the summer?"
