Increasing Power Through

Design
Lesson plan and more resources are
available at: aka.ms/hackingstem
Hacking STEM
Hacking STEM is a free resource for teachers, delivering inquiry and project-
based lessons that complement current STEM curriculum.In this project we
explore increasing power through design.

Generating and Measuring Power

This lesson integrates a traditional middle school physical science curriculum
with 21st century technical skills. Design as a fundamental component of the
inquiry process is emphasized and prototyping and testing by student scien-
tists and engineers is introduced. The projects progress from making a simple, Lesson
Notebooks
analogue data collecting instrument to designing alternative solutions and
then adding electronics to facilitate real-time data visualization and analysis.

Contains materials lists, lesson

plans and activities to support
teaching this project, mapped to
Contents the NGSS and ISTE standards.

Go to aka.ms/hackingstem
for these and other activity
03 Activity Overview
notebooks.
04 Windmill instructions

05 Things Youll Need

11 Wind Turbine Instructions

04 Things Youll Need

20 Stator/Rotor Template

21 Connect the Microcontroller

23 Excel Workbook Basics

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Activity Overview Hack our projects

This project encompasses two progressive variations of a turbine. The first version We love innovation and
of the project includes making a windmill and mechanically lifting a load to encourage you to hack
measure work and power. The second version uses a stator and rotor to generate our activities and make
electricity (specifically an alternating current). This energy is captured by an Arduino them your own.
microcontroller and then can be visualized in a customized Excel workbook.

Windmill
Students learn the basic structure and function of a windmill. They build a model

windmill which serves as the structural foundation for a rotor blade design challenge
later on. The model windmill constructed in this activity will be used to help
participants gain familiarity with a pulley mechanism, used for calculating work and
power. Steps for success

Weve indicated
important steps with a
Rotor Blade Design Challenge rocket ship. Use extra
care and precision when
Students utilize the engineering design process to design and prototype their own you see the rocket to
rotor blades. They have the opportunity to test and collect data regarding the load ensure great results!
lifting capacity of different blade designs, before calculating the work and power
generated using these test results.

Wind Turbine
In this lesson, students equip the basic windmill model with a generator, transforming Substituting everyday
it into a wind turbine. Electricity generated by the wind turbine and custom rotor blade objects
designs will be processed through an Arduino board to be viewed and analyzed in a
customized Excel workbook. This workbook enables students to compare previously Similar items can be
collected analog data, simultaneously with the new turbine generated results. substituted for most
materials according to
availability.

Data Visualization

Sourcing specialized
materials

Many of these items can

be easily found online or
21st century technical skills explored in this activity include:
at your local hardware
store. You can find an
online shopping list for
this entire lesson at:
aka.ms/
windmillshoppinglist

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Windmill
Things youll need
Get links to all the materials you need at: aka.ms/windmillshoppinglist
Materials

1 drinking straw
1 bamboo skewer
1 empty oatmeal container
3 wooden craft spools
2 Velcro tabs with adhesive backs
1 length of string (approx 1m)
3 paper clips
7 washers
Card stock or index cards
4 plastic spoons (or other material to be used as turbine blades)

Toolkit

awl or punch
hair dryer This symbol indicates steps that
hot glue gun + glue sticks require extra care and precision.
metric ruler
pen/pencil
scissors
pliers or wire cutters

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Make the windmill
1 2

Mark two points directly 180 apart and 2 cm from the top. Punch two holes at those marks, with an awl or pointed tool
wide enough so that the straw fits through.

3 4

Insert the straw through both holes and trim it, leaving Secure the straw in place with a little hot glue.
about 2 mm on each side.

5 6

Create two circles by tracing the spool on card stock. Cut out the circles and pierce the centers with a skewer.
These washers will prevent the wooden spool from getting
stuck on the straw.
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 7 8

Insert the skewer into the straw. Place the washers on both Place the spools on the skewer as shown, two on the long,
ends. sharp side of the skewer, and one on the blunt end.

9 10

Move the blunt end of the skewer flush with the spool and Remove the skewer, spools, and washers and cut the skewer
then make a mark on the sharp end of the skewer to indi- where it was just marked.
cate proper placement of the two spools.

11 12

Replace the skewer into the straw and add the washer. Wind Continue to wind tape around the skewer, being
tape around the short end of the skewer so that it will fit careful to avoid buckling or wrinkling, until its the
snugly inside the spool. proper width for the spool.

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 13 14

Slide the spool over the tape. Perform the same tape winding process on the other side.
Make sure to add the paper washer before you begin.

15 16

Add the second spool. The skewer will extend past the spool Puncture a hole in the center of the Velcro tabs using your
to allow for the wind blades to move. awl and the spool, to align the holes.

17 18

The Velcro will keep the blades in place while making it easy Put the opposite end of the Velcro tab on another spool
to switch out and try other blade designs. and slide it onto the skewer.

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 19 20

Cut off the handles from four spoons for this blade design. Hot glue the cut spoons to your wooden spool.
We also encourage you to experiment with other materials.

21 22

Make sure that the concave shapes follow one another and Add the blade assembly to the skewer, securing it with
that you evenly space them. Velcro.

23 24

Unbend a paper clip to make a simple loop. Add washers (as Tie the length of string to the paper clip.
weights) and twist the clip closed.

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 25 26

Tape the loose end of the string to the spool. Youre now ready to use your turbine with simulated wind.

Use a hairdryer to simulate wind. This will spin the turbine blades and wind the string around the spool, lifting the weights.
Try adding or removing weights and calculate the load lift capacity of your windmill. Use a stopwatch to measure the time it
takes to lift the load.

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Wind Turbine
Things youll need
Get links to all the materials you need at: aka.ms/windmillshoppinglist
Materials Tools

1 drinking straw awl or punch

1 bamboo skewer hair dryer
1 empty oatmeal container hot glue gun + glue
3 small clear plastic plates (17+ cm wide) metric ruler
3 wooden craft spools pen/pencil
2 Velcro tabs with adhesive backs sandpaper
1 length of string (approx 1m) scissors
4 disk neodymium magnets multimeter (analog/digital)
1 spool of magnet wire
1 LED light
2 alligator clips
4 plastic spoons or other materials for wind blades
Card stock or index cards
1 stator/rotor template (pg 19)

This symbol indicates steps that

require extra care and precision.

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Wind four coils
1 2

Roll up a piece of paper to make a tube, with a width of Begin winding the wire near the end of the roll. Leave
about 3 cm. Tape it closed. one end of the wire hanging for connecting the coil

3 4

later. Remove the coil but DO NOT cut the coil from the spool.
Repeat until you have wrapped the wire around at least 70 Tape the opposite sides of the coil as shown.
times and up to 200. The more times the wire is wrapped the
more effective the coil will be.

5 6

Measure 10 cm from the coil, on the spool side, and make Continue this process until you have 4 connected coils. Clip
another coil, repeating steps 3 and 4. the end of the wire next to the spool, leaving at least 8 cm.

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Make the wind turbine
1 2

Mark two points directly 180 apart and 2 cm from the top. Punch two holes at those marks, with an awl or pointed tool
wide enough so that the straw fits through.

3 4

Insert the straw through both holes and trim it, leaving Secure the straw in place with a little hot glue.
about 2 mm on each side.

5 6

Create two circles by tracing the spool on card stock. Cut out the circles and pierce the centers with a skewer.
These washers will prevent the wooden spool from getting
stuck on the straw.
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 7 8

Stack three plastic plates and pierce a hole in the center of Use the turbine guide and trace the coil outlines on one
them with the awl. plate, numbering the outlines as you go along.

9 10

Glue the coils to the plate with the leads facing outwards. Tape wires between the coils down to the plate. The leads
from the first and last coil should be left hanging.

11 12

Mount and glue your stator to the cylinder. Trim the edge from another plate.

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 13 14

This will cover the stator coils. Make sure the coil leads are accessible later connection.
Glue the second plate to the first.

15 16

Trace the magnet outlines from the template onto a third Identify and align the poles by sticking the magnets
plate. together and marking the top of each to indicate polarity.
Place the magnets on the back of the plate with the marked
side up.

17 18

Glue the magnets to the plate. The spool will now be aligned and glued to the center hole
of the plate.

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 19 20

Attach it to the inside of the plate, avoiding getting any glue Replace the skewer in the straw and add the paper washer.
in the hole of the spool. Wind tape on the skewer to build the width to fit snugly in
the spool hole.

21 22

Avoid wrinkles or buckles so that the spool can fit smoothly Fit the spool onto the tape winding. It should be sized so
over the shim. that the spool does not spin around the shim.

23 24

Insert the paper washer on the stator/rotor side of the shaft, The rotor spool will fit snugly onto this tape winding. Before
wrap tape in the same way as done in the previous step. mounting the rotor onto the shaft, place a Velcro tab onto
the end of the spool.

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 25 26

Cut off the handles from four spoons for this blade design. Hot glue the cut spoons to your wooden spool.
We also encourage you to experiment with other materials.

27 28

Make sure that the concave shapes follow one another and Attach one side of a Velcro tab then puncture a hole in the
that you evenly space them. center, using your awl and the spool, to align the holes.

29 30

Attach the blade designs with the Velcro and trim off the Lightly sand the wires to remove the coating. Next, attach
sharp end of the bamboo skewer. one side of the alligator clips to the stator coil leads.

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 35

Attach the other end of the alligator clips to the LED. It does not matter which wire goes to the cathode of the LED as
alternate current is being generated.

Use a hairdryer to simulate wind. This will spin the turbine blades and generate electricity, causing the LED to light up.

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Template
Stator/Rotor template for a 7 (17.78 cm) plate

coil
magnet

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Connecting the Arduino

Things youll need

Materials Start with the technical requirements at:
aka.ms/hackingSTEMpower
1 Arduino Uno
4 general purpose diodes (1N4148 or similar)
1 100 Ohm resistor
1 220 uF capacitor
1 breadboard 170 pin
3 jumper wires with ends stripped
4 pin-ended wires

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 1 2

Start by connect your Arduino UNO to your computer with Go to aka.ms/powerarduinocode and download the flash
the USB cord, then download and install the Arduino IDE, by code.
following the prompts.

3 4

Open your downloaded file to launch the Arduino App. Next, select: Tools > Port > COM4 (Arduino UNO). Your
com port may be different than COM4.

5 6

Then select Tools > Board: Arduino/Genuino Uno > Click on the circular right arrow button to upload.
Arduino/Genuino Uno.

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7 Place the breadboard and Arduino atop the 8 Connect two pin ended wires from the bread-
turbine. Trim and bend the ends of the 4 diodes board to the alligator clips on the turbine (previ-
and 1 resistor, then place in the breadboard. ously connected to the LED).

9 Take 3 strands of insulated wire, strip the edges, 10 Plug in the capacitor then connect two more pin
and place in the locations shown. ended wires from the breadboard to the Arduino.

10

Congratulations!
You are now ready to plug this device into your Excel workbook and measure power!
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Visualizing Data
To complete the full project, make sure you meet these technical requirements:

PC running Windows 10, and Excel 2016 (Desktop)

Project Cordoba Add-In: Modernize your existing copy of Microsoft Excel with a free add-in to support real-time data
streaming from your projects available at: aka.ms/getaccess
Customized Excel Workbook available at: http://aka.ms/powerexcelworkbook

Excel Workbook Basics

Getting Started
Simulate wind with a hair dryer and select Run Design Trial. This initiates a Ready, Set, GO! countdown , starting a 15
second trial timer. As you power your turbine for the next 15 seconds, Excel visualizes power production. The Power
Generation battery and graph provide your average power output (watts) once the timer reaches 0. The Power
Generation battery and the No Trial Running box change from pink to purple as your move from design 1 to 3.

Power Output
Manual Designs: This section allows you to enter the data from manual windmill trials. Power production is calculated in
watts. Check the boxes to the left of the Design numbers to control whether this power calculation is displayed on the
Power Generation line graph.

Digital Designs: Here you will visualize data from one turbine at a time. Choose wind turbine trial number you would like to
use to collect/visualize data. Then click the Run Design Trial button as described above.

Power Generation & Magnetic Field

As you power your wind turbine, it creates an electromagnetic field when the magnets pass over the magnetic coils and
shows up in the Magnetic Field visual.

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