How to Build a Small Educational Wind Turbine

As people seek alternative energy sources to fossil fuels, the search has included experimentation with natural and renewable sources of energy, such as sun and wind. Windmills, once nearly forgotten, are becoming popular again. Who knows, your student might be the one to come up with a more efficient wind turbine. To start your elementary students thinking, here’s how to make an educational wind turbine with everyday materials.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Flower stick 12 inches long
• Cork about 1 inch in diameter
• 2 wooden blocks 3/4 inch in diameter
• Glue
• 2 washers that will fit over the flower stick
• Thick drinking straw, 7 inches long
• Paper
• Scissors
• Hatpin
• Nylon fishing line 16 inches long

1. Assemble the materials for the wind turbine. The flower stick is a long thin stick used to hold flowers upright. You can purchase them at craft shops.
2. Stick the flower stick into the cork. The flower stick will be the shaft of your small wind turbine. Glue one block of wood about 2 inches down from the cork, then put a washer on the stick behind the cork.
3. Slide the straw onto the flower stick for the wind turbine. Put a washer behind the straw, then glue the other block of wood onto the flower stick.
4. Cut out a square of paper 8 inches by 8 inches. Make a diagonal cut from each corner toward the center, 4½ inches long. This will give you a shape like a squared-off shamrock.
5. Take the left edge of one “leaf” of the shamrock and fold it to the center, gluing it in place. Continue around the shamrock, folding the left edge of each leaf toward the center and gluing it. You’ll have a pinwheel shape for the rotor of your educational wind turbine.
6. Stick a hatpin through the center of the pinwheel into the cork.
7. Tie the fishing line around the flower stick near the cork and glue in place to complete the educational wind turbine assembly. Test the power of the wind turbine by tying the fishing line to a weight and facing the pinwheel into a stiff wind. Use a small fan if no wind is available.
8. Hold the straw and let the wind turn the fins of the pinwheel, thus turning the shaft and winding the fishing line around the shaft as it draws up the weight.

Tips & Warnings

• Use different weights to further determine the power of your educational wind turbine.