As part of our exploration of renewable energy, first graders took some time to dive into another renewable energy source! The students remembered that renewable energy comes from sources that won’t run out—like the sun, wind, and water. This time, our focus was on the wind. We asked a simple question: What is wind energy, and how can it help us?
We started by learning the phrase “wind turbine” and discussed that wind turbines are very tall, usually 3-blade, white spinning figures some students may have seen on car trips before! To get us started, we took a virtual field trip to a wind farm called Boralex to see some real wind turbines in action and learn about how they function.
After learning the basics, we took some time to explore wind using pinwheels. We looked at the shape of each blade and how wind pushed them to spin. Next, we viewed some more images of real wind turbines and looked closely to see how the blades were shaped similarly or differently to the pinwheel. We noticed the blades were longer and straighter, but both the pinwheel and wind turbine had curved blades to catch the wind.
Students used cardstock, hole punches and brads to create a sturdy base and three blades for their wind turbine, just like the ones we saw on the virtual field trip wind farm! The assembly was a little tricky, and the students who finished their projects first did an amazing job showing their classmates how to assemble theirs when they were ready. Great team work and problem solving skills, first graders! Although our models didn’t spin perfectly, we all agreed that our blades were the right shape to catch wind and were great models of the real deal!
