Kid Wind Windmill pieces

thingiverse

Kid Wind is a fantastic way to have students study wind energy. The problem is there isn't a lot younger students can do without some adapter pieces. These files allow you to use skateboard bearings as pivots, use PVC tube as the legs and upright and then adapt to Legos for gears or belts to drive the motor. I am a big advocate of students designing their own adapters (even at the 5th grade level) but these printable files will get you going! Overview and Background Wind Mill design and construction As a first time designer of a windmill, the Kidwind.org kit comes with a few motors, a volt meter and a wing hub. This will allow you to design a simple direct-drive windmill, maybe 4-5 volts of electricity produced without much 'oomph'. If you gear drive the blades you get a far higher output. The trouble is, how do you adapt gears with low cost? These files allow you to use standard PVC pipe from a hardware store and mount the various accessories you will need. Students at an elementary school helped design these parts. They measured the size of the pipe and motor in order to scale their drawings. These files are free to use and hopefully help make some magic with your students. Lesson Plan and Activity Kid Wind Competition https://www.kidwind.org/ is a wonderful organization focused on young minds entering the career fields of renewable energy sources. They offer low cost local and regional competitions for upper elementary through high school students. I have led groups in middle school with the most success. The high school groups have some very elaborate gear drives and I would encourage you to search the web for examples. The pieces I am including here will allow you to use skateboard bearings (purchased inexpensively from Amazon.com) and Legos to build out your windmill. The gear drives seem to be the best, versus the belt drives. I am not including true plans but rather some key elements that adapt 3/4 PVC pipe (Home Depot) to the standard motors included in the kit from Kid Wind. My 5th grade students were able to research blade angles and designs. With these pieces they constructed some testing windmills and generated a small amount of power. Here is an example of a middle school version: https://youtu.be/jBwSQGA5sbo Materials Needed 3D printer (PLA or ABS will work fine) 4-6 feet of 3/4 inch white PVC pipe (other color would be fine too, I just haven't verified fit) various hardware (nuts and screws for the legs, all holes are 1/4 inch) hot glue gun cardboard for wings/blades package of skateboard bearings (Amazon.com has them for under $10, cheap ones are fine) assorted Lego axles, gears, bricks, etc. for the drivetrain