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Wind Power

Wind powered cars generated a lot of excitement at the summer program today. I explained how to make the chassis of the car. The challenge to the students was to design a way to capture the wind from the fan to make their car go. Students could work in pairs or individually to construct their cars. We had a variety of models. Some of cars almost flew. This activity from PBS Kids was accessible to all grade levels. The car that traveled the fastest was designed by an incoming second grader. The collaboration and and conversations between the students was impressive.
One of the staff members and myself also noticed that they students were excited for all of the cars. There was no need to compete with each other. They only wanted to modify their own car to see if they could make it go faster or farther. I heard one student say, "This is my best car ever." I believe that was the highest endorsement of our time today.


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