Whirlydoodle

 

One dark and windy morning this week, the children were able to see the lights on the Whirlydoodle windmill for the first time. During morning carpool the excitement was palpable. Children, who have since passed on to fourth grade, were also able to observe on the way to their classroom. It was a very exciting morning! Our ideas about energy are not dead and gone. They remain very alive in our windmill collection we have chosen to leave up.

Dilemma

 

So, I have a dilemma. 

Right when we were getting ready to switch our attention from our science investigation of energy to our history investigation of immigration, the children decided that they wanted to build a windmill that could light a light bulb. What a great intention! It would really put so much of their knowledge of energy into practical application.

The thing is, it is turning out to be more complicated than I thought it would be. It is more complicated than I thought it was going to be even when I thought it might be kind of complicated. I'm starting to realize that, in order for it to really work, we would need to use gears to change the rate of speed of the shaft and to adjust for the blah blah blah blah. OK, so I still don't really know what it will take, but I know it is more than we can accomplish in 5 weeks. 

I've been talking to others and trying to process how to deal with the fact that we will not accomplish what we set out to do. And we are still trying to hand over more time to think about immigration. I'm developing some ideas about the whole situation, but honestly I am curious about what you have to say about it. 

What do you think?

How should we face this reality?

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."



Researching Windmills

We have intentions of building a windmill that lights a small light bulb.

In order to provide a common, concrete experience with a windmill, our amazing friend, Pippin, brought us a windmill to put up just outside of our classroom. Now instead of people talking about that one windmill they saw that one time on that one family trip, the children can talk about our windmill. Everyone will know exactly what we are talking about.

One question that came up in our previous planning session really stuck with us and had us stumped. The wind doesn't always blow the same direction. We think our windmill should be able to move so that it can face whichever way the wind blows. But how should it move? Should people move it? What if we aren't at school when it changes directions? Do we just loose all of that good wind?

 There is no better teacher than experience. So we set to work to put up a windmill that we could study, to answer our question and help us think further about our own plans.

 There was lots of measuring to which one students commented, "I just thought Pippin was a builder guy. I didn't know he was a mathematician too!"

 As Pippin pounded the wooden stakes into the ground, the children were fascinated by the vibration they could feel in the ground. They would try to see just how far away they could stand and still feel it.

 They were also intrigued that they could feel the vibration while standing on the benches.

Of course, other classes that see the windmill stop by to see what is going on. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind the first day we put it up.

 The next day was much windier. The children were thrilled to see that the windmill was facing a different direction and spinning vigorously as they pulled up in their cars to get dropped off for school. Some even rolled down their windows to cheer. They spent the first moments of the school day observing. What did they notice? What might help us when we build our own windmill?

"Which ever way the wind is blowing the windmill turns to face. All that air hits the panel in the back and it turns it, like opening a door. First is faces that way [demonstrates with his hands] now it is facing this way."

"But where should we put the tail on our windmill? Should we put it behind the generator or in front of the generator? Because that one doesn't have a generator like ours will."

"When it does spin to face the wind, the pole it sits on doesn't spin. There is a part that fits inside the pole that moves."

One student even tried to get the windmill he had created, in the studio with Anna, to spin in the wind alongside the research windmill.

It was fun to be in our room the next day to hear other classes run by on their way to PE shouting, "It's spinning! It's Spinning! Look!"I wonder what brain seeds it might be planting for the other children at Sabot.

Every good school needs a Pippin!!

Thinking in metaphor

After a conversation with our awesome atelierista, Anna, I decided to start appreciating when we humans think in metaphors. I've decided to start recording them.

I heard this one today while the children were working on writing non-fiction books about energy.

"The sun is pretty much a big, giant ball of hyperactive gas! I think it happens when the atoms and molecules go like crazy like...."
"Like they have fire ants in their pants."
"Like they are being chased by a crocodile."
"And they ate six pieces of cake."
"They need to use the bathroom."
"And they ate hot chili peppers!"

Inventing

Thinking about energy

"I bet we could study energy our whole entire life and still not know everything there is to know about energy!"

We've been studying energy as our science topic for months now. I started out by asking "What is energy?" They thought it was kind of a silly question ... until they had to answer. We've been trying to answer that questions ever since.

This is exactly where I want the children to be when we end an investigation of any kind-- realizing just how much more there is to know.

Getting Ready to Build a Windmill