The Wisconsin KidWind Challenge is a design competition for middle and high-school students that engages them in STEM. Seven Wisconsin middle-school teams from Darlington, Burlington and New Auburn come to the Wisconsin Energy Institute at UW-Madison to compete on March 30. Two teams will qualify for the National KidWind Challenge in Texas in May. Teams design, build and test their own wind turbine that has a gear train and blades attached to a 2-watt generator. Turbines are tested in a wind tunnel with a 4-5 meter-per second wind flow. They present their wind projects to a panel of judges and are tested on their knowledge.
Last year, a teacher at New Auburn Middle School offered a full day wind energy workshop as part of her agriscience class that 90 students attended, and she offers a Green Energies course as well. Two teams from Darlington Middle School placed third and fifth out of 40 teams in the national competition in 2018. leadertelegram.