Wind power in the United States has seen significant growth. California led the way in the 1980s, and wind energy quickly spread across the Wind Belt, including states like Texas. Favorable policies and declining costs contributed to the expansion. Wind now accounts for about 9% of national electricity generation, with Texas having 37 GW of installed wind capacity, ranking third globally.

The wind energy industry started in the 1980s in Southern California and several European countries. Today, the United States, Europe, and countries like India, Australia, Japan, Canada, China, and Brazil lead in new wind power capacity. Currently, wind power generates around 7% of global electricity, with onshore systems dominating but offshore capacity expected to grow in the future.

This lesson uses a hands-on approach to teach about renewable energy with a case study in wind turbines. This lesson also uses engineering design to help situate renewable energy within a practical human society.

Students will learn the difference between global, prevailing and local winds. In this activity, students will make a wind vane out of paper, a straw and a soda bottle and use it to measure wind direction over time. Finally, they will analyze their data to draw conclusions about the prevailing winds in their area.

Wind energy uses naturally flowing air in the Earth's atmosphere to generate mechanical power and electricity. It is a fully renewable resource and has few climate and environmental impacts. Wind energy is one of the lowest cost sources of electricity and is one of the largest and fastest growing electricity resources worldwide.

Students learn about wind energy by making a pinwheel to model a wind turbine. Just like engineers, they decide where and how their turbine works best by testing it in different areas of the playground.

In this lesson students are introduced to Architect, Jeremy Peang-Meth. Mr. Peang-Meth was asked to design a local, renewable energy source for building located in the heart of New York City. While the tall buildings surrounding the site caused some obvious problems, there were also some benefits to the site. Students are asked to consider the constraints posed by the location of the building and then, based on their analysis of those constraints, to find a roof location that will provide good energy capture from the wind. After they have made that choice, students are invited to view Mr. Peang-Meth’s solution as he presents it in the provided video.

Global wind patterns are dictated by the movement of the Earth on its axis and are significant factors in determining the climate for regions of the planet. Students learn how the Coriolis effect and Hadley convection cells determine the location of deserts on Earth. They manipulate inflated plastic globes to discover how the Coriolis effect drives wind clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Then they incorporate latitudinal differences onto this modeling exercise to understand why deserts form at 30 degrees north and south of the equator. Once students understand the importance of global winds, they discuss hydropower in the desert. They compare and contrast two case studies: China’s Three Gorges Dam, and Chile’s proposed plant in the Atacama Desert that would creatively use solar power to move seawater up to the top of a mountain so that it can flow back down and generate power. Students note the economic, environmental, cultural and social impacts, issues and benefits of both power plants. Then they reflect, write, debate and discuss their ideas and opinions using evidence from the case studies and their own research.

In this activity, students develop an understanding of how engineers use wind to generate electricity. They will build a model anemometer to better understand and measure wind speed.

Students learn how engineers transform wind energy into electrical energy by building their own miniature wind turbines and measuring the electrical current it produces. They explore how design and position affect the electrical energy production.

Student pairs design and construct small, wind-powered sail cars using limited quantities of drinking straws, masking tape, paper and beads. Teams compete to see which sail car travels the farthest when pushed by the wind (simulated by the use of an electric fan). Students learn about wind and kinetic and renewable energy, and follow the steps of the engineering design process to imagine, create, test, evaluate and refine their sail cars. This activity is part of a unit in which multiple activities are brought together for an all-day school/multi-school concluding “engineering field day” competition.

The kids from the Yard have built a Wind Simulator that helps them see when the wind will pick up. They learn how low and high pressure systems work to create wind.

STUDENT ACTIVITY - 1st -- TXThis is a distance-learning lesson students can complete at home.Students will gather evidence that the wind is moving by creating windsocks.This activity was created by Out Teach (out-teach.org), a nonprofit providing outdoor experiential learning to transform Science education for students in under-served communities. .

Students research the feasibility of installing a wind-turbine distributed energy (DE) system for their school. They write a proposal (actually, the executive summary of a proposal) to the school principal based on their findings and recommendations. While this activity is geared towards fifth-grade and older students, and Internet research capabilities are required, some portions of this activity may be appropriate for younger students.