Middle school students from Darlington and Shullsburg will participate in the “ultimate wind turbine design competition” on Saturday, March 3.
KidWind Challenge participants discover the promise and limitations of wind energy technology; design, build, and test a functional creative wind turbine; and compete with their peers in a supportive environment.
Students will compete in the first-ever Wisconsin KidWind Challenge for the chance to qualify for the 2018 National KidWind Challenge. The event, which takes place at the Wisconsin Energy Institute on the UW-Madison campus, will consist of students testing fully built turbines in a wind tunnel, and a variety of other engineering challenges and opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge of wind energy.
Three 6th Grade KidWind Teams at Darlington Middle School have been designing, building and testing wind turbines for the last two months.
Each of the teams will be given 15 minutes to present. Each presentation will consist of three parts: an actual performance test of the teams wind turbine, five minute questions and answers with the team on the process and wind energy, and the teams prepared presentation. Scores for the three parts (valued at 33 percent for each part) will be added and posted resulting in a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place team.
Since KidWind began hosting the KidWind Challenge and related workshops in 2009, they estimate that they have had about 12,000 students competing, 77,000 wind turbines constructed, and 147 KidWind Challenge Events hosted across 19 different states.