Lesson 2: The Power of Wind

Focus Question

What affect does thewind have on different objects?

Materials

• A windy day (or a bunch of fans inside a classroom)
• Different objects to be dropped and observed interacting with the wind
• “What is Wind?” chart (print out from Resources, upper right)

Procedure

1. Read the following poem to the class, and then ask the students: What was the author’s purpose for writing the poem? (What does the author want you to know?)

   

2. Have students write down a response to the prompt: “Describe the wind. Can you see wind? Feel it? Smell it? Hear it? Taste it? How do you know it’s there?” Have students use all of their senses to describe wind in their notebooks. If it is a windy day, allow students to go outside. They can use what they already know and anything they observe. What evidence can they provide to support their descriptions of wind?
3. Ask the students, “What effect does wind have on different objects?” Ultimately, the students will discover, among other things, that wind can make objects move. It can affect animal behavior and can even break things.
4. Show students the collection of items that you brought to class. Have students use these items to fill in the chart What is Wind? (print out from Resources, upper right). In the first column list the item; in the second column, have students make a hypothesis (prediction) of what will happen to each object in the wind; in the third column they will fill in their observations.
5. After all objects and predictions are entered, begin testing each item. This may be outside on a windy day, or inside by using fans, having the students blow with their mouths or fan their notebooks. Students should record the effects of wind on each of the objects in the third column of the chart.

Discussion Questions

1. Using wind, how far could you make one object go?
2. What senses were involved in your observations: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell?
3. What does this experiment tell you about the wind?
4. What other examples demonstrate the ability of wind to make things move?
5. How would the earth change if there were no wind?
6. How do humans use wind?

1. Have students act out their interpretation of wind without using any words (e.g. soft breezy day, violentwind storm, etc.). Then the class can discuss the good and bad effects of different types of wind on the weather and environment.
2. Have students can draw pictures of wind. We really don’t see the wind, just its effects. Each student should represent wind in his/her own way. Share the drawings. See what similarities and differences there are in the various interpretations.
3. Have students make pinwheels to see how wind energy can be used to do work. They can compare the pinwheels to windmills that are often used to pump water from the ground. Students can also make weather vanes to see how wind direction changes over time or how variable wind direction is at different places.
4. Older students can build a windmill using the directions at http://science.wonderhowto.com/how-to/construct-model-windmill-and-calculate-its-power-259781/
5. History of Wind Power Timeline Project: Have students put together a timeline for the use of wind power by humans.

• Break the students into groups and have each group conduct research on the history of human wind energy use. Each group should find ten “events” in the history of wind power. Each event should have a date and brief description about why it is important to the development of wind power.
• Create a timeline stretching around the room that spans from 5000 BCE to the present day. (The timeline should not be to scale, as there will be many more events in the last five centuries than in any time before that.)
• Have students write their “events” on small cards and then place them on the timeline.

Resources for the history of wind power:

• http://energy.gov/eere/wind/history-wind-energy
• http://www.telosnet.com/wind/early.html
• http://www.windenergyfoundation.org/about-wind-energy/history
• http://learn.kidwind.org/learn/wind_basics_history