Wind for schools activities in Kansas

The Wind for Schools program, sponsored by the Wind Powering America division of the US Department of Energy and active now in eleven states, has been running in Kansas since 2007. Twelve K-12 schools now have small turbines for use in education; six others are in process. University engineering students assist with siting, permitting and foundation design; electric utilities assist with installation. Schools are encouraged to use one or both of two freely available curricula, from NEED and KidWind, to help them incorporate the wind turbine into their curricula. Strong interest among engineering students is increasing numbers of computer and communications students considering employment in the power area. Future developments include teacher training workshops, work on the curricula to clearly align the concepts taught with state educational standards, and communications research using the turbines' generation data.