Where is the best place for a wind turbine at Academy School?

We knew that wind could be used to make electricity, so we did some research to find out the best place for a wind turbine at our school.  Then we wrote letters to Mr. Paciulli explaining our findings.  Here are two of the letters:

Dear Mr. Paciulli,

            My claim is that none of the areas around our school are good enough for a wind turbine.  An anemometer is a piece of technology that measures wind.  It will work if you engineer it correctly.  I know it wasn’t windy because the anemometer spun around 0 times.  And we looked outside 5 days in a row and none of the days were windy.  It should be windy a lot if you want a wind turbine.  And you don’t want it just for decoration.

Sincerely,

Kayli

Dear Mr. Paciulli,

            How are you?  My claim is that none of the areas around our school are good locations for a wind turbine.  First we built and designed an anemometer.  An anemometer is a piece of technology that helps people tell how fast the wind is going.  Orly put us into groups of threes or fours and those groups made one anemometer each.  We made lots of changes so it would really work.  Then we tested our group anemometer out in front of a fan.  If our anemometer did not work, then we would fix the stuff that we thought was making the problem.  Then we would test it again to see if it worked.  When all the anemometers worked in front of the fan we looked outside for a few days but no wind!  So finally we decided just to go out anyway with the most successful anemometer.  First we went to the circle in front of the school, next the sidewalk close to the parking lot, then on the driveway by the side of the gym, then we went to the middle of the playground, and then the pavement just outside our classroom.  But in all the places the anemometer did not spin once so maybe we just did not wait long enough or we just should not have a wind turbine at our school.  Maybe we could have a solar panel instead?

Sincerely,

Gretchen

Building Anemometers

We spent a week building, redesigning, building, redesigning, and so on until we were finally successful.  It took a lot of perseverance.

A Short Simile Poem

(We are working on writing similes, practicing using capitals and periods, and writing poems.  This is just the first draft of a poem.)

My rock is shiny
like gold.

My rock is white
like the clouds.

The rock is bumpy
like a bumpy slide.

The rock is special
like my family.

by Alex

Designing an Anemometer

What is an anemometer?  It is a machine that measures wind speed.  We are designing anemometers to determine the location around our school with the fastest wind.  Yesterday we conducted some research on how different materials responded to fast wind and slow wind.  (We made the wind using a fan.)  We tested an egg carton cup, a small paper cup, a flat piece of cardboard, a flat piece of aluminum foil, and the bowl of a spoon.  Today we used that data to plan out the design of our anemometers.

You can see these engineers are working hard with their teammates.  Next week we'll build our first anemometers and see how they work.  We know we will probably need to refine our designs, but we're not worried.  That's part of the engineering process.