Wind Energy Curriculum for K-12
Please find various wind energy curriculum guides and lesson plans below. These curriculum guides and lesson plans cover K-12 education and provide both classroom material and hands-on activities. For more information on each, please browse the suggestions below and each website linked.
Through the organization of the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project and in cooperation with the American Wind Energy Association, we are pleased to provide "Wind Energy Curriculum" for Kindergarten through the 12th grade. The material has been developed and organized into four separate grade levels to ensure that the information is appropriate for each age group in K-12. Included in the material is background information and hands-on activities to explore motion, weather, the history of wind, and modern wind technology.
Primary (Grades K-2)
The primary Wind Is Energy Kit (Grades K-2) has a Teacher Guide, student information in a storybook format, and suggested hands-on activities, with pinwheels, bubbles, a mini wind turbine, and a fan.
Elementary (Grades 3-5)
The elementary Wonders Of Wind Kit (Grades 3-5) comes with Teacher Guide, class set of Student Guides, and equipment to conduct hands-on experiments, including pinwheels, bubbles, materials to construct pinwheels and wind indicators, a mini wind turbine, and fan.
Wonders of Wind Teacher Guide / Wonders of Wind Student Guide
Intermediate (Grades 5-8) / Secondary (Grades 9-12)
The Intermediate/ Secondary Wind For Schools Kit (Grades 5-8/9-12) comes with Teacher Guide, class set of Student Guides, and equipment to conduct hands-on experiments, including blade design, materials to construct anemometers, calculating wind power, and more.
Infobooks
NEED's Wind Infobooks are provided on primary, elementary, intermediate, and secondary reading levels. The guides provide resource information on wind energy, electricity, transportation, conservation and efficiency, and consumption. The Infobooks are used in the classroom as resources for many NEED activities and class sets of the elementary, intermediate, and secondary versions are available. The primary version is designed for teachers to read to students. The infobooks are revised every year to provide complete, up-to-date information.
As a companion to the NEED Wind Infobooks, the Elementary School and Intermediate School Wind Infobook Activities are quick lessons to help students retain the content provided in the Wind Infobooks.
Elementary School Wind Infobook / Elementary School Wind Infobook Activities
Intermediate School Wind Infobook / Intermediate School Wind Infobook Activities
KidWind Science Snacks are a fun way to facilitate learning through energy related activities and math problems. These twelve downloadable lessons (6 hands-on activities and 6 math problems) cover everything from determining the speed and direction of the wind to discovering why wind turbine blades are shaped as they are. The math problems cover turbine rotor swept area and Albert Betz's power coefficient of wind, and much more.
Please visit the KidWind website today and download these free lessons.
KidWind also provides wind energy focused PowerPoint presentations. Please click here for these free downloads.
WindWise Education is produced by a partnership of the KidWind Project and Normandeau Associates. WindWise Education is a comprehensive interdisciplinary wind energy curriculum that fosters critical thinking skills at both the middle and high school levels. Every lesson has an inquiry-based introduction and a hands-on activity to develop analytical skills. Try their innovative curriculum and teacher training program for grades 6-12 that provides answers to today's real world energy questions.
To try each lesson or to buy the full kit, please visit the WindWise Wind Energy Curriculum website.
The Power of the Wind Curriculum is part of the National 4-H Curriculum Collection and is designed for middle school aged youth to learn about the wind and its uses. This curriculum is a joint project of the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) , the College of Engineering and University Extension at the University of Illinois. Youth work with members of a team to design, create, build, and test a wind powered devices and are given opportunities to explore wind as a potential energy source in their community. The Power of the Wind activities involve young people in the engineering design process as they learn about the wind and its uses.
The Power of the Wind Youth Guide / The Power of the Wind Facilitator Guide
To download the Power of the Wind overview, please click here.
To download any or all of nine two-page Grab and Go activities that can be printed and used in your program, please click here.
A team of educators and scientists from the Idaho National Laboratory have worked together to develop a energy curriculum, dedicated to helping teachers integrate the energy curriculum of other organizations into their classrooms. The team is also working to make hands on learning experiences available to students through the installation of wind turbines.
For wind energy lesson plans, please click here.
