What is Energy?
What is Energy?
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Energy is the ability of a body to work. There are various forms of energy. Some of them are heat energy, light energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, sound energy, mechanical energy, potential energy, kinetic energy, and nuclear energy. Lesson One
Movie of our sail car testing.
Wind Energy
Wind Energy
Wind power or wind energy generates mechanical power or electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. Lesson Two
See our Pinwheel Results
The Purpose and Promise of Wind Turbines
The Purpose and Promise of Wind Turbines
Have you ever seen an animated wind map of the USA? It shows how the wind is blowing right now!
Did you know that Virginia will be an offshore site for manufacturing of wind turbine blades? Virginia is also working on building offshore wind farms in the Virginia Beach area.
The vocabulary we need to know: Kinetic energy vs. mechanical energy; horizontal and vertical axis; nacelle; tower; rotor blades; rotor hub; gearbox; shaft; generator; anemometer; up-wind and down-wind; augmentor.
Lesson Three: How Do Turbines Work?
Lift, Weight, Drag and Design
Lift, Weight, Drag and Design
How are airplane wings and wind turbine blades similar? How important is the design of each to causing lift?
We will talk about lift, weight, thrust, drag, and design of airplane wings.
Here is information about turbine blades that further explain these concepts.
See a Google slideshow of our session 4!
In session 5, we reviewed information about drag, saw different blade shapes in a WindWise lesson on blades, and then used rulers, protractors, and compasses to begin drawing blades on graph paper.
We also completed lesson one in the Tinkercad tutorials posted on YouTube by PromoAmbitions: Interface and Movement.
In session 6, students reviewed WindWise's Wind Turbine Design PPT to finalize the design of their first turbine blade. After cutting out their blade template, five team members used cardboard to create three or four blades to test on direct drive turbines. One team member had blades made with balsa. They documented the voltage and amperage with at least three trials. We used a Vernier multimeter guide with two multimeters and a resistor to determine V and mA.
After the Test Trials
Then they considered suggestions for improving blades from the WindWise document, Which Blades are Best? The considerations are blade length, number of blades, smoothness and weight of material, blade shape, and blade pitch. Based on these considerations, team members will re-design and re-make blades in session 7.
KidWind Turbine Wind Tunnel Testing
KidWind Turbine Wind Tunnel Testing
Wind Tunnel Testing
Wind Tunnel Testing
On Feb 16, we will have a Fun with Gears session with Makersmiths member, Ralph Pugh. We will also be testing our blades using gear-driven turbines.
Click on this link to view our Feb 16 session when PBS came to film us in action!
Wrapping Up
Wrapping Up
On Feb 23 we will work on the following:
Team Google Slide Show that shows the process we went through designing, making and testing out our blades for our wind turbine.
Finish testing our blades and record our data using a gearbox. We need to determine which blades we will enter in the challenge and the gear ratio that would be best: 8:1, 4:1 or 2:1.
Begin working on our science board that will help us present our project in the judging session.
Begin reviewing the 10 Big Questions.
March 1- complete our science board and finishing testing blades with the gearbox and wind tunnel.
Team Presentation to Parents
Team Presentation to Parents
March 8, we will:
5PM-6PM practice our presentation that we will give to parents.
6-7:30PM- present our presentation to parents and have a team/family dinner. We will also play Jeopardy as a review for the NOVA Regional Challenge on March 14.
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