KidWind Challenge: College of the Desert Assists with the Region’s Sixth Annual Competition.
Students compete in the KidWind Challenge, scheduled for February 27, 2016 at Desert Hot Springs High School.
Approximately 100 students from high schools and middle schools in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties will build and demonstrate their working wind turbine models as part of this sixth annual event. Student projects will be judged by local industry partners and community leaders.
The KidWind program helps teachers learn about wind energy technology, receive curriculum and materials.
This helps them to integrate wind energy instruction into their classes, and form student teams for regional competitions.
But more importantly, it provides students that may not be high performing in their academic courses with an opportunity to learn the science and math behind this clean energy technology and, as a result, experience success that will lead to motivation in their academic curriculum.
It’s about giving teachers resources to teach wind energy science and technology, then building a bridge for student involvement and success.
As with prior years, the 2016 competition is funded largely through the DSN ATRE grant for the Inland Empire/Desert Region and jointly conducted by College of the Desert, Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, Palm Springs Unified School District, and SMaRT Education.
KidWind was started by a sixth grade California science teacher, Michael Arquin, who was not satisfied with the products available to teach children about wind energy science.
Launching and conducting the program in this region was supported heavily by CREATE, a program funded by NSF at College of the Canyons. KidWind creates affordable classroom-ready materials and free downloadable print materials to support teachers and students all over the world.
Visit KidWind at http://learn.kidwind.org.
