The 2013 KidWind Challenge begins January 1st!  In order to best prepare teachers to help students understand the power in the wind and to mentor them throughout the process of turbine design and construction, we have created this page as a clearinghouse of useful information. If you still have questions that are not answered on this page, please contact Melody Moen at melody.moen@alaska.edu.

1. Review the KidWind Challenge Schedule listed below, noting important deadlines.
2. Submit a letter of interest to melody.moen@alaska.edu
3. Purchase a KidWind Design Challenge Kit. Kits can be purchased directly from ACEP,  (melody.moen@alaska.edu) or from kidwind.org. Costs of the kit will be posted in January and generally range from $30 - $60.
4. Watch the design blade building video. This video provides important tips and techniques to support your students in a successful competition.
5. Print the scoring sheet provided by the Alaska KidWind Judges. This sheet will give you detailed information on what is being judged in the competition, how to increase your team’s scores and additional Alaska requirements for the competition. This resource is NEW to Alaska Kidwind this year. (Available in January).
6. Perform the design challenge with your students. There are several curricula referenced below to use as a model for teaching this topic and incorporating the design challenge into your classroom. 
7. Contact melody.moen@alaska.edu to schedule a judging competition date for your school.
8. Finalize presentations for submission.

January 21st  – Letters of Interest for the KidWind Design Challenge must be submitted to melody.moen@alaska.edu.

March 18th – April 1st – KidWind Challenge Judges will travel to qualifying schools to evaluate and grade the students final wind turbine project. If this does not work for your schools timing please indicate that in your letter of interest.

April 5th – Presentations are due by no later than close of business.  Email to melody.moen@alaska.edu

April 29th – The winning team in each division will have an opportunity to present their turbine design at the Alaska Rural Energy Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. 

To learn about the  national rules and judging criteria for the 2013 KidWind Challenge, please visit the KidWind Challenge Rules page.

Additionally, the Alaska KidWind Challenge has developed a supplemental scoring structure which identifies specific components being scored, requirements for the Challenge competition and offers additional information necessary to conducting a successful Challenge in your classroom. This scoring sheet will be available in January.

KidWind has developed interdisciplinary wind energy curriculum that is FREE for teachers. These lessons are a wonderful way to introduce wind energy to your students and to begin to get them thinking about their wind turbine design and construction. 

KidWind also offers countless videos and powerpoints on everything from wind 101 to using the digital multimeters. These FREE teaching resources can be accessed via the KidWind Teacher Resources page.  Please make sure to check out the Wind Turbine Blade Design powerpoint and go over it with your students prior to them designing their blades!

The Alaska Wind for Schools staff developed a video that walks teachers through how to use the different KidWind kits. Please follow the link to watch the video.

As part of the judging criteria, students are required to submit a multimedia presentation demonstrating their knowledge of wind energy science and documenting their design process.  These presentations can be videos or powerpoints and need to be submitted by March 29th to Melody Moen at melody.moen@alaska.edu. 

The multimedia presentations may include the following topics:

• Introduction the team (IMPORTANT:  Each presentation should begin with a title page which lists the Schools Full Name, Mailing Address, The Teacher’s Full Name, The Team Name and the Full Name of each student)
• Innovations and creativity during the design process
• Design problems and solutions
• What materials were used and how much they cost
• Benefits of wind power
• Issues with wind power and its impact
• Whether wind is an option for their community

Watch the video that Team Glacier Bear from Haines created for the 2011 KidWind Challenge.
 

To learn more about how the wind tunnel works and is assembled, please download the wind tunnel assembly guide and watch the wind tunnel assembly video. 

In order for us to be able to post photos of all of the wonderful KidWind participants on the Wind for Schools website and to use the photos for other outreach purposes, each student MUST have the UAF Model Release Form signed by their parent or guardian. It would be a great service to us if you could please hand out these forms as soon as possible and have the students submit them by the date of the KidWind Challenge at their school. Students who do not have a signed model release may be excluded from the competition. Thank you!