Wind Turbine Design Inquiry

(Guided)

Objective: How can we best design a wind turbine that will “catch” the most wind energy?

Vocabulary: Wind, energy, energy transfer, potential, kinetic, mechanical, generator, rotation, revolutions per minute, wind turbine, blades, surface area.

Guided Design Inquiry: Let’s choose a shape for our turbine blade. What should our first turbine blade shape be? Let’s have our second turbine blade be the same shape, but longer in length.

Compose Question: If I lengthen the wind turbine blades by, how will that affect the when I hold it centimeters from the fan?

Hypothesis: If I lengthen the wind turbine blades on each design by , the will because

Materials: 2 sheets of centimeter graph paper, 2 push pins, 2 pencils, scissors

Procedure:

Let’s predict what the average RPM will be for both blades.

Blade Sketch / Blade Length / Predicted Average RPM
A.
B.

Let’s test your hypothesis using multiple trials, and take an average of the three trials for each blade.

Show Your Work

Blade A Trial / RPM
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Average RPM
Blade B Trial / RPM
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Average RPM

What are 3 true statements about your data and observations?

Write your explanations for your results, using science and math vocabulary:

What further questions do you have? Did anything unexpected happen?

Ideas for future explorations:

Wind Turbine Design Inquiry

(Exploration)

Objective: How can I best design a wind turbine that will “catch” the most wind energy?

Vocabulary: Wind, energy, energy transfer, potential, kinetic, mechanical, generator, rotation, revolutions per minute, wind turbine, blades, surface area.

Independent Design Inquiry:

(What variable are you controlling? Shape of blade? Surface area? Your own idea? Just choose one!)

Compose Question: If I change the wind turbine’s by , how will this affect the wind turbine’s when I hold it centimeters from the fan?

Hypothesis

Materials: 2 sheets of centimeter graph paper, 2 push pins, 2 pencils, scissors

Procedure:

My Prediction (your choice of data, table, graph, etc.)

Time to test my hypothesis!

What are 3 true statements about your data and observations?

Write your explanations for your results, using science and math vocabulary:

What further questions do you have? Did anything unexpected happen?

Ideas for future explorations:

Humphreys SC2 2011