CMST Wind Power
06 mai 2023: In order to approach the concepts of renewal energy, students worked in Technology classes on a self-made windmill. It was a logical and natural approach, since in the isle of La Désirade there are two wind farms with several windmills.
There are eight new generation wind turbines (the larger they are the less noise they produce and the more energy they produce). The old generation wind turbine is only use in case of emergency (e.g. : hurricanes). Students started by constructing diagrams to list all the material needed. They worked in groups of two or three. To stay within the sustainable development theme, they used only recycled materials. The activity was built in several steps:
- Identifying the different energy sources and how they operate.
- Reflecting on how wind turbine work: mechanism, movement and transformation into energy
- Reflecting on how to transform the movement created by the wind into energy
- Construction of a mock-up.
In English classes they also watch the movie "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" based on the true story of William Kamkwamba who built a wind turbine to save his Malawian village from famine.