Middle schoolers from Wasilla placed second and fifth at the National KidWind Challenge, held virtually June 7th through 10th. The Alaska teams from American Charter Academy, called The Georges (2nd) and AK Hurricane (5th), were coached by their science teacher Carol Drake, who has been involved with KidWind for over four years ever since taking a training from REAP in 2017. Drake coached teams that also participated in the 2019 National KidWind Challenge, the first year Alaska students participated in the national competition.
The Georges team members from left to right are Luke J., Bridger B., and Cooper K. Photo by Carol Drake.
Although last years’ Alaska State and National KidWind Challenges were cancelled due to the pandemic, this year REAP hosted a virtual competition called the Clean Energy Olympics (CEO) where students could compete in a wind, solar, efficiency, or hydro challenge. The wind division of the competition followed the National KidWind rules for engineering and testing a model wind turbine. REAP could then pick up to five teams from the wind division to advance to the National KidWind Challenge, which included The Georges and AK Hurricane from American Charter Academy. While most of the judging was done virtually, students from Girdwood were able to test their designs in a wind tunnel brought by REAP for a day, pictured left.
We are very proud of the work done by both teams… They are all looking forward to going to Nationals in person next year!
Fifty-eight teams and more than 200 students competed in the 2021 National KidWind Challenge. Over the course of the four-day virtual event, these students were tested on their knowledge of renewable energy and demonstrated their wind turbine’s performance to a panel of judges using a variety of virtual tools. Team scores were based on their performance on six tasks including performance data of their wind turbine, Zoom presentation to judges, a virtual quiz bowl, and three instant challenges (including a public service announcement – see The Georges video submission right). REAP staff Tyler and Colleen had fun helping judge and validate data for the National Challenge. Drake told REAP, “We are very proud of the work done by both teams. Bridger has participated for three years and was especially excited to make Nationals since it was cancelled last year. They are all looking forward to going to Nationals in person next year!” The Georges and AK Hurricane competed in a large field of 31 teams, and in addition to both teams placing in the top 5, they also had the highest power output of all the teams using KidWind generators. Read the press release here from KidWind for more information and the full results.
Congratulations to The Georges, AK Hurricane, and all the other teams who participated in the National KidWind competition! Thank you also to our sponsors for the CEO this year: Matanuska Electric Association, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, and Alaska Electric Light and Power. Additional funds supporting this work are from REpowering Schools and Office of Naval Research, part of the ARCTIC Program.
For questions or further information, contact Colleen Fisk.