Creating our own windmills:
To learn about wind power, we created our very own windmill designs. We designed both a horizontal and a vertical windmill. We were trying to accomplish creating the most energy efficient design we could. We wanted a design that could catch the most wind all year round.
First, we started by coming up with shapes that logically would catch the most wind. Once we came up with a few and narrowed it down to one, we cut them out of cardboard. Which was when I thought to create a sharper edge to the windmill blade we should use manilla folder paper on the edges creating a point. This ended up working extremely well. We also tried using less blades for a lighter load that could spin faster, but this ended making our windmill even slower.
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Our vertical design was a huge success and for the most part easy to design. Our horizontal windmill, however was not. We came up with several designs to try but most of which were difficult to construct and fell apart. Finally, when we created a design that stayed together, it didn't catch much air and was not very efficient compared to our vertical design windmill. We kept trying new designs but never improved our results by much.
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Positives:
Collaboration- We worked together very well on this project. All of us contributed ideas and discussed the ideas contributed. No one felt left out or talked over. We were all very considerate and respectful.
Design- Our general design of our vertical windmill was very good. It was one of the fastest in the class. While this design took longer than the other it really paid off and was worth it.
Design- Our general design of our vertical windmill was very good. It was one of the fastest in the class. While this design took longer than the other it really paid off and was worth it.
Negatives:
Time Management- We really should've managed our time a lot better. We worked very hard on our first design which took more time that preferred, which gave us very little time to design and test our our horizontal windmill.
Focus- Some of our group members get distracted easily. Especially by other groups, which proved counterproductive. Since some of our group would be talking wit other people, it would fall upon the rest of the group to work harder and longer to get the project done.
Focus- Some of our group members get distracted easily. Especially by other groups, which proved counterproductive. Since some of our group would be talking wit other people, it would fall upon the rest of the group to work harder and longer to get the project done.