My Project Grades & Placing in the Competition will be based on 100 points from the following rubric:

• Energy Produced (35%)

• Turbine Design (30%)

• Written Documentation of Design (20%)

• Instant Wind Challenges (15%)

Energy Produced (35%)

• The total energy output of your turbine over the 30-50 second trial period will be collected using data-logging software. Each team’s energy output will be ranked relative to that of other competitors. Each team will receive points corresponding to its rank.

• Energy scores will be ranked on a comparative basis using one of two methods:

  • Rank Method: Turbines will be ranked by energy output. The highest producing turbine will receive the full number of available energy points, and the following turbines will receive points based on rank with a 2-5 points deduction for each position they are from the top turbine. Example: The top turbine produces a total of 100J and receives 35 points. Your turbine is ranked 6th at 80J and each rank down receives 2 fewer points. You get 25 points.

  • Ratio Method: Turbines will all be ranked by energy output. The highest-producing turbine will receive the full number of available energy points. All other scores are calculated based on the percentage of the top score. Example: The top turbine produces a total of 100J and receives 35 points. Your turbine produces a total of 80J, so your team would receive 80% or 28 points.

• In all cases, you want to generate as much energy as possible to get a high score.

Turbine Design (30%)

A panel of judges will examine your wind turbine design at a KidWind Challenge. This 15-20 minute interview is to get a better understanding of the process you went through as you designed and tested your turbine. You should be prepared to discuss/defend the choices you incorporated into the design. Questions judges may ask about your turbine design:

• Does your turbine have a gearbox, a pulley system, or is it direct drive?

• Did you have any issues with friction? How did you reduce friction in your drive train?

• When building your turbine, what kinds of obstacles or challenges did you face?

• How did you balance your blades? Do you notice any vibration when your turbine spins up to speed?

• Why are modern wind turbine blades shaped like airfoils? Are your blades shaped like airfoils? Did you try to make any airfoils?

• How did you determine the number of blades you would use? Did you perform any experiments?

• How did you determine the pitch (angle) of the blades?

• Why are your blades as long as they are?

• What materials did you use to make your blades? Why? What was important as you were building your blades?

• What techniques did you use to increase the power output of your wind turbine?

• What materials did you use to make your tower? What were some of the challenges you faced making a tower? 

• What changes did you make to your turbine that led to the most performance gains?

• Discuss the craftsmanship of your design, including creativity, economic, and environmental decisions.

• Did you use recyclable materials?

Written Documentation of Design (20%)

• All students must complete a Project Profile Form (see Appendix). This sheet should be presented to your judges when you enter the judging room.

• In addition to this sheet, teams may also share additional documentation with the judges that showcases, with more detail, their design process and knowledge of wind energy science. It is up to each team to determine how they want to document this part of their project. In the past we have seen:

  • Short reports

  • Engineer’s notebooks

  • Videos (maximum of 4 minutes)

  • PowerPoints

  • Science fair poster boards

• Students must provide the means to play any multimedia. We will not provide a computer, speaker, or other media devices.

Instant Wind Challenges (15%)

• At some KidWind Challenges, students may be asked to put their knowledge of wind energy to work at an Instant Challenge. Instant Challenges don’t require any preparation or planning before the Challenge, just a solid knowledge base to refer to for on-the-spot engineering.

• These challenges may include building a windmill to lift weights using common household materials, or designing sails to most efficiently catch the wind.

• The number of points that these Instant Challenges are worth will vary among Challenges.

• During past Challenges, Instant Challenges have added 10-20 points to the final score. At some locations, we may be piloting bonus Instant Challenges and other categories for testing. Please check the KidWind Challenge website and your local Challenge registration page for more details.

10 Big Questions:

Here are some questions to get you thinking about clean energy in broader terms. You will likely need to draw on your understanding of these questions to be successful at Instant Challenges, knowledge tests, and in the judging room! While these broad questions can be explored by students across the grades, some subquestions may be geared to younger or older students. Coaches can help steer students to the questions most appropriate for their grade level. You do not need to become an expert! Just make yourself knowledgeable. 

1. How do we generate and use electricity — and how do we move it around? From what sources do we generate most of our electricity in the U.S.? How does a generator work? What are the primary sources of electricity in your region of the U.S.? What are some of the ways we transform energy from one form to another? How much of the electricity that is used in your country is generated by wind, solar, or other clean energy? How has this changed over the last ten years? How do we move electricity from power plants to our homes? What is distributed generation? 

2. How do we measure and quantify electricity? What are the units we use to measure electrical energy consumption? How much does it cost to power your house each month? What is the difference between energy and power? How much power and energy do common objects like toasters, TV, cell phones and other devices use? Can you read a power bill? How can we reduce our electrical consumption or make it more efficient? How does electrical energy usage vary between countries? 

3. What is climate change and how can clean energy impact this phenomenon? What is climate change and who does it impact? What are the environmental benefits of generating electricity using wind or solar power? What are some of the tradeoffs? What challenges might we face in generating over 50% of electricity from clean resources in the U.S.? How does efficiency and conservation play a role in reducing the climatic impact of electricity generation? 

4. What kinds of devices transform the power of the wind and the sun? What types of devices have been used to harness wind or solar power, apart from being used to generate electricity, and what were their uses? What are the various styles of windmills and turbines? What are the various types of solar thermal and solar photovoltaic panels? What is the equation that defines how much power is in the wind and what are the most important variables? How do we measure the power coming from the sun? What components of wind turbines are undergoing rapid change and development? Which changes seem to be having the most impact in improving turbine performance? How has the performance of solar panels been improved?

5. How does weather and geography impact clean energy production? What causes wind? What are the windiest or sunniest parts of the U.S.? Where are most of the wind turbines or solar farms located in the U.S.? How does an offshore wind farm work, and where are they located? How do the seasons affect wind or solar energy production? How could the science of meteorology impact and improve the performance of solar or wind farms? 

6. How can we store electricity? What is electrical storage? How can storage impact the “variability” of clean energy resources? What are the challenges of implementing small or large scale storage? What kinds of technologies are used in the storage of electricity? Electric vehicles have huge batteries in them — can we use them for storage in our homes? 

7. What are local impacts of a wind and solar-powered future? What are some of the physical and social impacts of solar and wind farm construction and operation? How can we reduce these impacts? Which impacts seem most concerning to local communities? How do these impacts compare to those of fossil fuel-generating facilities? 

8. How do we pay for clean energy? How do we financially subsidize clean energy resources? How does this compare to fossil fuel and nuclear subsidies? Do you feel that subsidies are appropriate in the energy industry? If you feel that subsidies are okay, what energy sources would you subsidize and why? How can we provide affordable, clean energy to all communities around the globe? 

9. What does a clean energy-powered future look like? Is it realistic to think we can power the grid with 100% clean energy? What role does nuclear have to play in a clean energy future? What are smart grids and microgrids and how could they be an improvement over the power grid we currently have? How would large numbers of Electric Vehicles impact the power grid? How can use less electrical energy but still have all the modern conveniences we want? 

10. What are clean energy careers? Developing and installing clean energy components and systems like wind turbines and solar panels requires professionals and experts from many different fields of study. What are some of the careers and jobs that make clean energy possible? What do you need to study to work in these fields?

Study Guide Topics:

• Climate Change and how wind energy affects/helps it

• How to read a turbine specification sheet

• Energy statistics (percentages, distribution of wind farms, etc.) in Virginia and the US

• Energy consumption by avg. home

• Power vs. Energy

• Components of a wind turbine

• Measuring wind speed

• Understanding the power equation

• Renewable vs. non-renewable resources

• How wind turbines work and basic functions

• Converting scaled measurements

• Virginia’s Energy Goals

• Using the power equation

• Understanding swept area of a turbine

• Wind measurements

• Understanding the Smart Grid

• Small Wind Turbine Siting

• Vertical Axis (VAWT) vs Horizontal Axis (VAWT) Wind Turbines

• Energy Subsidies in the US

• Wind Turbines and wildlife impact

• Careers in wind energy