Are you learning remotely or home schooling? These curriculum-linked activities will put engineering into practice as you investigate wind turbines.
Why This Matters: The renewable energy revolution is here, and engineers will help make it happen.
How wind turbines are made: Blade angles
Join Lee Constable as she investigates wind turbine engineering. In episode 1 – what’s the best angle for the blades?
If you want to transform the energy in wind into electricity, you want machines that do this as efficiently as possible – at least, within your cost limits.
This series of videos show investigations using STELR wind energy kits. They are designed for remote learning and home schooling.
Join Lee Constable as she does experiments and gathers data around the engineering of wind turbines. Can she build the ideal turbine?
Students do not need access to the equipment, they can analyse the results of Lee’s investigations and complete specially developed worksheets.
Worksheets, including the relevant data sets, are available by contacting STELR.Admin@atse.org.au or on the Australia’s Science Channel Education portal.
There are many factors that contribute to the efficiency of wind turbines, such as the materials used and the height of the towers. You can test some factors with the STELR wind turbine.
During three videos, science legend Lee Constable will test:
1. What is the best angle for the turbine blades? (this video)
These videos were made with the generous support of Orica.
About STELR
STELR is a ready-to-use STEM resource that is hands-on, inquiry-based, and in-curriculum.
Most importantly, it shows students that science and maths are relevant to their lives.
STELR aims to increase student enthusiasm for and engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) subjects, and provides career profiles which highlight the study pathways necessary for jobs in STEM-related industries.
STELR has produced more than 20 curriculum modules comprising over 280 lessons, 100 hands-on activities, 30 career profile videos and 80 written career profiles. Many modules are supported by kits of Australian-designed and manufactured equipment to facilitate inquiry-based, hands-on, minds-on, problem-based learning.
Find more STELR investigations and order STELR equipment kits at https://stelr.org.au/
Join Lee Constable as she investigates wind turbine engineering. In episode 2 – how blade lengths change the efficiency.
If you want to transform the energy in wind into electricity, you want machines that do this as efficiently as possible – at least, within your cost limits.
This series of videos show investigations using STELR wind energy kits. They are designed for remote learning and home schooling.
Join Lee Constable as she does experiments and gathers data around the engineering of wind turbines. Can she build the ideal turbine?
Students do not need access to the equipment, they can analyse the results of Lee’s investigations and complete specially developed worksheets.
Worksheets, including the relevant data sets, are available by contacting STELR.Admin@atse.org.au or on the Australia’s Science Channel Education portal.
There are many factors that contribute to the efficiency of wind turbines, such as the materials used and the height of the towers. You can test some factors with the STELR wind turbine.
During three videos, science legend Lee Constable will test:
These videos were made with the generous support of Orica.
About STELR
STELR is a ready-to-use STEM resource that is hands-on, inquiry-based, and in-curriculum.
Most importantly, it shows students that science and maths are relevant to their lives.
STELR aims to increase student enthusiasm for and engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) subjects, and provides career profiles which highlight the study pathways necessary for jobs in STEM-related industries.
STELR has produced more than 20 curriculum modules comprising over 280 lessons, 100 hands-on activities, 30 career profile videos and 80 written career profiles. Many modules are supported by kits of Australian-designed and manufactured equipment to facilitate inquiry-based, hands-on, minds-on, problem-based learning.
Find more STELR investigations and order STELR equipment kits at https://stelr.org.au/
Join Lee Constable as she investigates wind turbine engineering. In episode 3 – how many blades is best?
If you want to transform the energy in wind into electricity, you want machines that do this as efficiently as possible – at least, within your cost limits.
This series of videos show investigations using STELR wind energy kits. They are designed for remote learning and home schooling.
Join Lee Constable as she does experiments and gathers data around the engineering of wind turbines. Can she build the ideal turbine?
Students do not need access to the equipment, they can analyse the results of Lee’s investigations and complete specially developed worksheets.
Worksheets, including the relevant data sets, are available by contacting STELR.Admin@atse.org.au or on the Australia’s Science Channel Education portal.
There are many factors that contribute to the efficiency of wind turbines, such as the materials used and the height of the towers. You can test some factors with the STELR wind turbine.
During three videos, science legend Lee Constable will test:
3. What is the best number of blades to have on your turbine? (this video)
These videos were made with the generous support of Orica.
About STELR
STELR is a ready-to-use STEM resource that is hands-on, inquiry-based, and in-curriculum.
Most importantly, it shows students that science and maths are relevant to their lives.
STELR aims to increase student enthusiasm for and engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) subjects, and provides career profiles which highlight the study pathways necessary for jobs in STEM-related industries.
STELR has produced more than 20 curriculum modules comprising over 280 lessons, 100 hands-on activities, 30 career profile videos and 80 written career profiles. Many modules are supported by kits of Australian-designed and manufactured equipment to facilitate inquiry-based, hands-on, minds-on, problem-based learning.
Find more STELR investigations and order STELR equipment kits at https://stelr.org.au/
Rosemary Barnes - How to design wind turbine blades
Now you know how to build a wind turbine, engineer Rosemary Barnes shows you how to design your own blades
If you want to transform the energy in wind into electricity, you want machines that do this as efficiently as possible – at least, within your cost limits.
As an extension to the STELR wind energy kits, engineer Rosemary Barnes shows you how you can design your own wind turbine blades.
Using free software called TinkerCAD, she’ll walk you through the ways you can design your own blades, and then get them ready for 3D printing. Maybe you’ll find a design that works even better than the real wind turbine blades?
These videos and resources are designed for remote learning and home schooling.
Worksheets for the STELR wind energy kits are available by contacting STELR.Admin@atse.org.au or on the Australia’s Science Channel Education portal.
STELR is a ready-to-use STEM resource that is hands-on, inquiry-based, and in-curriculum.
Most importantly, it shows students that science and maths are relevant to their lives.
STELR aims to increase student enthusiasm for and engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) subjects, and provides career profiles which highlight the study pathways necessary for jobs in STEM-related industries.
STELR has produced more than 20 curriculum modules comprising over 280 lessons, 100 hands-on activities, 30 career profile videos and 80 written career profiles. Many modules are supported by kits of Australian-designed and manufactured equipment to facilitate inquiry-based, hands-on, minds-on, problem-based learning.
Find more STELR investigations and order STELR equipment kits at https://stelr.org.au/
Rosemary Barnes is a wind energy engineer. Learn about what she does in her job and the study pathway she followed to get there.
Australian Rosemary Barnes is a wind energy engineer in one of the world’s most renewable energy-advanced countries, Denmark.
As a senior mechanical engineer for LM Wind Power, she designs and oversees the testing of a new generation of wind turbine.
In colder parts of the world, wind turbines can ice up, meaning they have to be temporary shut down until the ice melts. Rosemary is in charge of designing a system to heat the blades and keep them ice-free.
For this she needs to do a lot of quick structural calculations, and heat transfer calculations, to make sure the ideas that she tests are likely to work. She also applies mathematics to understand the detailed calculations of her colleagues do, so that she can understand how their work affects her design possibilities.
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