Show students the materials.
Give them their challenge:
Make a device that turns in the wind.
They can test their device by blowing on it, or ideally, by taking it into/making it in the wind outside.
For older students, allow them to work a while, then state the key design components:
(to help students that are still to start on a design, and to conceptually frame designs already in progress)
A 'pivot': parts that can spin around each other.
'Blades' that can catch the wind: larger surface areas that the wind can hit and push against.
It might be useful to refer back to these if students get stuck in their designing.
For some student groups this activity may be best split up into two parts. First all students make a pivot, then share each others’ designs. Then students choose any of the pivot styles displayed, make their own pivot and design blades to attach to their pivot.
Show younger or less mechanically-minded students different ideas for making a pivot (there are many other ways):
1. a skewer in an inverted tube/pen cap (to which the blades can be attached)
2. a skewer through a straw (to which the blades can be attached)
3. a blunt pin through an enlarged hole in a straw
There are other ways to make a pivot, but these are simple ones I have seen so far.
For Kindergarten students, provide them with tube-and-skewer pivot, cardboard, scissors and tape. Demonstrate how the tube spins on the skewer. Draw and name shapes that they could cut out of cardboard ("rectangle", "triangle", "blade shape" good to include), to tape to the tube. They can add more shapes if they want. Depending on how they tape the blades onto the tube, and so how floppy the blades are, they may need to be shown how to strap a strip of curved cardboard across two blades to hold them steady.
Allow students time to freely experiment, discuss ideas together (and share good ideas with each other, as all good designers and architects do).
The Play-Debrief-Replay method for teaching works well for this activity - see notes in the resource.
If students are in need of help, either ask them to visit other wind machines that are spinning in the classroom, or help them focus on some ideas (e.g. see pivot ideas above).
Once they are done experimenting, review the different ways of making the key machine elements (pivot; blades to catch the wind)
During discussion, refer to uses of machines that turn in the wind:
Anemometers measure wind speed - cups that spin around a shaft. Using magnets, the number of turns is translated into wind speed. (Show real anemometer if possible.)
(Wind vanes have a blade that turns in the wind, but its position stablilizes to show the direction that the wind is coming from.)
Windmills are wind machines used to pump water for farming or for groundwater extraction. They were also commonly used for grinding grain. They are complex machines of levers, wheels and gears.
A wind turbine is a windmill used to generate electricity: the energy in wind turns a blade which runs a generator to make electricity. Wind turbines are in greater use with increasing sustainable energy practices.
