Messing About with Wind and Electricity

 The children are working together to make a basic generator with

copper wire, magnets, cardboard and a nail.

Click here to watch the YouTube video that taught us how.  

Pippin brought more toys to play with.

We messed about with big heavy generators (those magnets are heavy),

a motor hooked to a wheel and a voltage meter.

We hooked everything up to his voltage meter to

measure how much electricity we could produce.

The children also dissected a fan that one family donated to the scientific cause.

Guess what! We inspired Pippin.
He is working on his own windmill project.
He brought his blades to show us.





 The children also worked to add to our research windmill collection.

We put an old fan blade on a wooden dowel for one.

The other is a bicycle wheel that the children converted by covering the space

between the spokes with packing tape.  

We are having a great time, but our play also has a purpose. Besides being fun, these experiences are helping us construct an understanding of the mechanics of windmills and electrical generators-- two things we really need to understand when it comes time to create our own windmill. I also celebrate that there are a lot of details that I am learning right alongside the children. Thank goodness we don't have to know everything to be teachers or I would never have the courage to follow the children's aspirations.

Here are a few of the important observations I've heard the children make this week.

 "I noticed something! All three of our windmills spin on their shaft. When we make our own windmill, it will need to be attached to the shaft so that if the blades spin it has to spin too because it needs to turn the generator."

"But if our shaft spins, then our tail would be spinning all around too and I don't think that would work."

"Look! They spin different directions."

"Why do you suppose that is? They face the same direction."

"I think it is the way the blades are slanted. If the wind blows [demonstrates wind with her hand] like this, it will hit these blades and push them this direction. But if the wind comes and pushes these blades, they are slanted the other direction, so the wind will push them that way."