Student teams from the Inland Empire/Desert Region came out strong for this year’s National KidWind Competition in Chicago!
The top three high school teams from the regional competition on February 24th, along with a slew of middle schools students, raised funds to travel and compete at the national level. The event was held as part of the American Wind Energy Conference in Chicago on May 9th.
Approximately 100 students from area middle and high schools designed, built, and demonstrated their working wind turbine models at the regional event held at Desert Hot Springs High School in February.
Of those, the top three performing teams from the high school and middle school levels were invited to attend nationals. Several more middle school students made the trip as well. Student projects were judged by local industry partners and community leaders. This year’s regional competition was jointly sponsored by Palm Springs Unified School District, College of the Desert, OneFuture Coachella Valley, and SMaRT Education. This was the eighth annual competition organized by the partnership.
The KidWind program teaches teachers about wind energy technology, provides curriculum materials for integrating wind energy instruction into their classes, and helps form student teams for a regional competition.
Advanced Transportation & Logistics DSN Larry McLaughlin worked with California Regional Consortium for Engineering Advances in Technical Education (CREATE) at College of the Canyons, funded by the National Science Foundation, to bring the program to Coachella Valley.
Congratulations Coachella High School for an overall 3rd place High School Division finish at the National KidWind Competition! Impressive work from the middle school teams as well! And, of course, none of this could be accomplished without the team coaches who worked with the students throughout, helped them raise money, and chaperoned the trip to compete in Chicago. Thank you coaches!
High School Teams
Team “Silver Bullet” – Coachella Valley HS – Overall 3rd out of 20 teams
Team “The Seniors” – Coachella Valley HS – Overall 7th out of 20 teams
Team “The Elitist” – Coachella Valley HS – Overall 17th out of 20 teams
Middle School Teams
Team “The Humming Bird” – Bobby Duke MS – Overall 4th out of 40 teams
Team “Wind Ninjas” – Toro Canyon MS – Overall 14th out of 40 teams
Team “Magnolia Energy” – Bobby Duke MS – Overall 20th out of 40 teams
Team “Notus” – Bobby Duke MS – Overall 23rd out of 40 teams
Team “Turbinstein” – Toro Canyon MS – Overall 26th out of 40 teams
Team “Anemoi” – Bobby Duke MS – Overall 27th out of 40 teams
Team “Blue Jays” – Las Palmitas Elementary – Overall 30th out of 40 teams
Team “Ventolines” – Bobby Duke MS – Overall 31st out of 40 teams
