Wind Energy Engineers

A one-week camp where students explore renewable energy by engineering their own wind turbines from scratch. Through iterative design challenges, they learn how blade shape, pitch, gear ratios, and materials affect power output — culminating in a team competition.

Full-Day Schedule

Day 1 — What Makes Wind Work?

• Morning 1: Wind energy basics — how turbines turn moving air into electricity. Explore real turbine components: blades, hub, generator, tower
• Morning 2: First build — assemble a basic turbine on a test tower using the Vernier generator kit. Test in the wind tunnel and record baseline power output
• Afternoon 1: Blade shape investigation — cut and test 3 different blade profiles (flat, curved, twisted) from cardboard. Measure and compare watts generated
• Afternoon 2: Engineering journals — students sketch their best blade design and write a hypothesis for tomorrow's improvements

Day 2 — Blade Design Lab

• Morning 1: Variables deep dive — number of blades, blade length, pitch angle. Each team tests one variable while controlling the others
• Morning 2: Data collection — teams run 3 trials per configuration, calculate averages, and identify their best-performing setup
• Afternoon 1: Material experiments — test blades made from balsa wood, foam board, plastic sheets, and cardstock. Which material is strongest AND lightest?
• Afternoon 2: Design iteration — teams redesign their blades based on morning data. Build version 2.0 and do a quick tunnel test

Day 3 — Power & Gears

• Morning 1: How generators work — magnets, coils, and spinning shafts. Students hand-spin generators to light LEDs and feel the resistance
• Morning 2: Gear ratios — build simple gear trains and test how different ratios affect blade speed vs. torque. Find the sweet spot for their turbine
• Afternoon 1: Electrical circuits — connect turbine output to LEDs, buzzers, and small motors. Calculate voltage and power from wind tunnel readings
• Afternoon 2: Turbine upgrade — teams integrate their best gear ratio and blade design into a single optimized turbine

Day 4 — Advanced Engineering

• Morning 1: Tower and nacelle design — how height, stability, and yaw (direction-facing) affect performance. Teams build and test tower modifications
• Morning 2: Wind farm simulation — arrange multiple small turbines and discover how spacing and layout affect total power output (wake effects)
• Afternoon 1: Presentation skills — teams prepare a 5-minute talk covering their design philosophy, data, and iterations
• Afternoon 2: Final build session — last chance to make improvements before tomorrow's competition. Test, tweak, repeat

Day 5 — Competition Day

• Morning 1: Competition Round 1 — each team gets 3 wind tunnel runs at different fan speeds. Highest average power output wins the performance award
• Morning 2: Team presentations — each team presents their design journey to judges (instructors + peers). Best presentation wins the innovation award
• Afternoon 1: Surprise challenge — teams get 20 minutes to build a turbine from a mystery box of limited materials. Quick-fire tunnel test
• Afternoon 2: Awards ceremony, recap of what they learned, and discussion: where is wind energy heading in the real world?

Half-Day Version AM/PM

Morning 1 and Morning 2 from each day form a complete half-day camp that covers all core concepts in a condensed format.

Skills: Engineering design process · Aerodynamics · Gear ratios · Electrical circuits · Data collection & analysis · Teamwork & presentation