Wind energy camp gives Wright County kids a hands-on look at turbines

Photo: James St. John / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Iowa gets more of its electricity from wind than any other state, and ISU Extension and Outreach has been working to make sure kids growing up among the turbines understand how they work.

A FLEx camp, short for Forward Learning Experience, titled “Blown Away through Wind Energy,” was tested at the Wright County Extension office on a Saturday, Jan. 14. Eighteen students in fourth through sixth grade signed up.

Three ISU Extension staff led the activities. The kids worked with some of the same tools engineers use to model and design wind turbines, watched a small 3-D printer build model parts and took turns on a virtual reality roller coaster. Pete Evans, an Iowa State University industrial design specialist who helped run the camp, cited the figure that about 36 percent of Iowa’s energy comes from wind, the highest share in the country.

Evans framed the day around what educators call 21st century skills, the idea that new technology changes how people solve problems. For kids in Wright County, where turbines stand in fields within sight of most farmhouses, the subject is close to home. Wind leases are also a steady source of income for many landowners in the county.

Extension offices around the state run FLEx camps on a range of science topics through the school year.

Dale Brekke writes for Clarion News Online.