Knex Wind Powered Water Lift Lesson Plan - MTU Mind Trekkers

MIND TREKKERS
Knex Wind Powered Water Lift Lesson Plan
Amount of time Demo takes: 4 min
Materials:
1. Wind Powered Booklet
2. Fan
3. Extension Cord
4. Bathroom style Dixie cups
5. Green Knex Bucket
6. Water
7. Knex set to build with
8. 50ml graduated cylinder
Set up instructions:
1. Look in the book on page 12 to see how to assemble the lift and put the entire thing together.
2. Fill the green bucket half full with water.
3. Plug the fan in and make sure it works.
4. Lay the blades of the windmill on the table next to the apparatus.
SAFETY!
1. Keep small pieces away from children. Choking Hazard.
Lesson’s big idea :
● Green energy using wind power.Varying the number of blades on the windmill produce
different windmill speeds.
Instructional Procedure:
1. Before each demo, dump the water in the cup back into the bucket.
2. Have the kids pick how many blades they want on the windmill and where they want to
put them (i.e. if they want two with spaces in the middle). Keep in mind the blades will rotate
counter-clockwise so put them on accordingly.
3. Make sure the fan is aimed at the windmill, turn it on and let it begin to fill the cup with water.
Start the stop watch and after 30 seconds to a minute, stop the fan, remove the cup, KEEP THE
WATER IN IT.
4. Put another cup in the set up and have the kids choose a different number of blades to try.
5. Repeat step 3 with the new amount of blades and let it run for the same amount of time.
6. Take the second cup out and compare how much water was in each cup. Discuss your
findings.
Assessment
Sample questions you can ask:
1. Why is there more water in the cup when there are more blades
Conclusion (Review concepts covered)

Big Idea: The more blades the windmill has for the fan to push, the faster it will go. After a
certain point there may be too many blades and not enough air will be able to get through the
blades. There is an optimum number of blades to use.
Clean Up
1. Dump the water out of the bucket.
2. Dry the bucket and all other equipment that is wet before storing.
Clean up between demonstrations if needed. When completely finished gather all materials listed
for this demonstration and make sure everything is accounted for. If something was used up,
broken or damaged. Let someone know so it can get replaced or fixed.
References:
KNEX Education, Renewable Energy Set, Wind Powered Models. K’NEW Limited Partnership
Group, 2011. Print.
knexeducation.com
National Standards:
K-4 Content Standard B: Physical Science, Light, heat, electricity and magnetism
5-8 Content Standard B: Physical Science, Transfer of energy, Motions and forces
9-12 Content Standard B: Physical Science, Motions and forces, Interactions of energy and matter