Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Cheap, sustainable power

10 minutes

Find Out: How does a wind turbine work?

35 minutes

Take Action: Design your own wind turbine

15 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

identify the components of a wind turbine and discover how wind turbines generate electricity
explore the careers involved in designing and constructing wind farms and turbines
investigate how to construct an efficient wind turbine.

Students can:

recall the components of wind turbines and describe how a wind turbine generates electricity
calculate power in watts
give examples of jobs and careers involved in the design and construction of wind farms
apply knowledge of force, motion and system efficiency to construct an efficient wind turbine.

Curriculum connections

In this lesson, students explore how force and motion are harnessed to generate electricity in wind turbines. They also design wind turbines, modifying them for efficiency. This Year 7 unit also includes Science lessons that investigate the impacts of forces on wind and hydro turbines and explore how these forces impact efficiency. Cool.org recommends that Science and Design and Technologies teachers collaborate to deliver these content materials across their respective subjects so students can understand the content from multiple STEM perspectives and reuse their turbines across these subjects.

Tune In: Cheap, sustainable power

Step 1

On the whiteboard, write the following phrase: ‘ _______________ costs households $165 per month, on average.’ (Source: myconnect.com.au)

Invite students to guess what the missing piece of information is in this sentence. To help students guess, ask them about what household costs generally need to be paid every month. You may need to prompt students with other monthly bills to give them some perspective and eliminate possible answers. For example, TV streaming services cost approximately $15 per month, and music streaming costs approximately $14 per month. The answer is electricity – this costs households $165 per month, on average!

Once the class has correctly guessed, draw out their wonderings about this cost. You may like to use the following prompts: Is the cost higher or lower than they expected? What factors might contribute to this price?

Step 2

Now ask your students, ‘What are some ways that we could reduce the price of electricity bills?’

Students may suggest ideas such as reducing the amount of energy they use, installing efficient appliances or using electricity at off-peak times. However, lead them back to thinking about how this price could be lessened when it is generated, especially by leveraging renewable energy sources.

Explain to your students that harnessing power from renewable resources can be a more cost-effective way of generating electricity, especially if it is done by individuals, as it makes use of freely available natural resources.

Step 3

Discuss and brainstorm what students already know about how renewable energy can be generated without using fossil fuels. You might like to get students to scribe and list their responses on the whiteboard. Examples of passive energy methods include:

Solar power

Solar panels: Install solar panels on your roof or property to generate electricity from sunlight. Many regions offer incentives, rebates, or tax credits to offset installation costs.
Solar grants and programs: Look for government or local programs that offer grants, low-interest loans, or even free solar panels for eligible households.

Wind power

Small wind turbines: If you live in a windy area, small wind turbines can generate electricity for your home. Similar to solar, there may be incentives available.

Micro-hydro power

Micro-hydro generators: If you have a stream or river on your property, micro-hydro power systems can generate electricity from flowing water.

Community and shared energy programs

Community solar projects: Buy or lease a portion of a community solar project, which can be more affordable and efficient than individual systems.
Net metering: Many utility companies offer net metering programs, where you can sell excess power back to the grid, offsetting your energy costs.

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient appliances: Use energy-efficient appliances and lighting to reduce consumption.
Home insulation: Proper insulation and energy-efficient windows can significantly reduce heating and cooling costs.

It may be useful to play the video with subtitles to help students apply this knowledge to the diagram in the next step. After watching the video, ask students if they can recall and describe how wind farms create energy and discuss what they learnt from the video.

Step 3

Show students these wind turbine diagrams, which you can find on the first 2 slides of the attached Visual Explainer, highlighting the main parts of a wind turbine: tower/mast, nacelle, shaft and rotor blades. Explain what each part does and keep the diagram poster visible for students to reference later.

In conjunction with the diagram, explain how a wind turbine works through the 5 steps below:

Wind blows: When the wind blows, it pushes against the rotor blades, making them spin around.
Rotor blades: The rotor blades are connected to a shaft (a long rod), and when the blades spin they make the shaft spin too.
Gears and gearbox: Inside the nacelle there’s a gearbox that speeds up the shaft's spinning.
Generator: The generator turns mechanical energy (motion from turning the rotor blades) into electrical energy. This is done by the spinning shaft that is connected to the generator. Imagine the generator like a bicycle dynamo that lights up a bulb when you pedal. In this case, instead of pedalling, the wind turns the blades.
Transformer: Electricity is sent through power cables to a transformer, which increases the voltage of the electricity produced by the generator for efficient transmission over power lines.

Take Action: Design your own wind turbine

Step 1

Explain to students that for this part of the lesson they are going to collaborate to create and construct their own wind turbine.

Watch the following video with your students, which shows the process of a wind turbine being constructed. As they watch, students should think about all of the different jobs people on the site are doing to construct the turbine.

Energising Queensland - ACCIONA Energía | Wind Turbine construction - Clean Energy Council (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVW4jr9qFYQ)

Step 2

Discuss the different roles your students see in the video. Why are there so many people required to put the turbines together? What jobs would be needed before these projects get to the construction stage?

Suggested responses: There are many roles required in the construction and design of wind turbines and farms, such as mechanical design, composite, manufacturing and structural engineers, as well as electricians, concreters, riggers, construction managers, wind turbine technicians and wind blade technicians. Highlight to students that the roles are incredibly diverse and varied, and cover a wide range of skills and interests.

Extension opportunity: You might like to get your students to explore the Future Energy Jobs Guide to discover whose job it is to design and construct wind turbines, finding as many careers as possible (they can start with the list above) and exploring in more detail. This will allow you to compare the skills and techniques they use in the following steps to skills and techniques required for these specific jobs, engaging them in the real-world relevance of what they are learning.

Step 3

Let students know before they start building that they will watch a video on how to build a wind turbine using materials such as paper or a polystyrene cup, straws, twine, wooden skewer, Blu Tack and tape (see picture below and show from the Visual Explainer). Suggest that the video should inspire them to be creative with problem-solving during the building process.

Remind students about problem-solving strategies they can use to find solutions. Students can sometimes give up when something doesn’t work, so it’s important to encourage them to keep trying. Highlight that a key part of this task is testing and modifying. You can make connections to the industry by outlining that things are always being modified for improvement. This is innovation.

Explain that once they have constructed their wind turbine, they will use a fan to spin their blades. Each group will time how long their turbine takes to lift a cup for a specified distance, with a set weight, such as 10 grams. This will test the efficiency of their design and allow them to calculate the power generated in watts for comparison.

Step 4

If you can’t prepare a model wind turbine earlier and bring it to class or get cardboard cylinders, you can show the example in the Visual Explainer. Alternatively, if you do have time, you could provide a prototype as an example or keep it to yourself to see what designed solutions students come up with. Ask students to identify the main parts: tower/mast, nacelle, shaft and rotor blades.

Step 5

Show students this video, demonstrating how to make a wind turbine:

Build a Wind Turbine | Windmill #EarthMonth Activities for Kids - Technovation (https://youtu.be/vmM5kO2PjCo)

Step 6

Ensure that each group has all the materials to build their wind turbine.

masking tape	2 straws
paper or polystyrene cup	500mm twine
1 wooden skewer	1-2cm Blu Tack
1 paper clip	3 weighted objects such as marbles, or 10-gram weights

Emphasise the importance of the shaft spinning efficiently and adding the cup so they have something to put the weights in. Model best practice, ie put the wooden skewer inside the straw so it can spin freely.

Step 7

Ask students to form groups of 4 or 5 and build their windmills for testing. Give each group a pack of materials consisting of cards, wooden skewers, straws, scissors, paper cups, 5 or 10g weights, string, and a stopwatch.

To ensure tests are consistent and for students to make fair comparisons, they should consider the following controls:

the height of the desks in the room, or set the height, ie 300mm
set a hair dryer or fan at the same speed, sitting at the same height, facing the same direction
if a hair dryer or fan isn’t available, then set windmills along a bench outside at the same height pointing in the same direction
use the same weight, such as 10g, 20g or 30g

Step 8

Show students how to measure and record results:

Write the mass in grams (g)
Measure the height the weight is lifted in metres (m). For example, the height of the desk might be 0.7 m.
Measure time in seconds (s) using a stopwatch by placing a weight in the cup, turning on the hair dryer or fan, and using the stopwatch to measure how long it takes the windmill to lift the weight.

Show students how to calculate power using the formula:

Power (watts) = mass(grams) x gravity (9.81m/s²) x height(metres)/time (seconds)

Step 9

Ask students to test their wind turbines. To test, students should put weights inside the cup, aim the hair dryer at the blades and time how long it takes to pull the weights up to the shaft using the stopwatch. Ask students to record their wind turbine diagram, observations, and suggested modifications in the table on their Design Your Own Wind Turbine activity sheet as well as calculate the power generated.

You might like to stop the groups after the first test and discuss how their turbines performed. What was good about their design and what could be better? If they modified their turbine and performed the test again what would signify that their turbine was performing better?

Using their observations of the first test, encourage groups to modify their designs to increase the power they generate. Time permitting, they should complete this modification process at least twice.

Consider giving groups some hints about what they can do to tweak their design, such as increasing the mass, shape, size and/or number of blades and designing efficient spinning of the shaft.

Step 10

Next, invite students to record their observations about which windmill design generated the most power in their Design Your Own Wind Turbine activity sheet. Ensure that students complete the evaluation questions:

Which design was the least efficient?
What was making it less efficient than the others?
Which design was most efficient?
What design features did you incorporate to make it more efficient than the other designs?
What modifications were successful in developing the most power?

Lead a class discussion about students’ observations and findings.

Reflection

Ask students to think about their recorded results and what they noticed during the testing experience. Ask them to tell you what they were and help them to relate it to the evaluation questions.

Engineering Wind Turbines

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Summary

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