Lesson 7 of 10 · Engineering and Design
Experiment⭐ 30 XP🛠️ Engineer ShopRenewable Energy in Practice
Engineering and Design.
🎯 Your mission
Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).
⚡ The twist
Every solution creates a new problem. That's good — that's the next project.
Mind = Blown
🌉 The Eiffel Tower can grow 6 inches taller in summer because metal expands when hot.
Make a hypothesis first
Predict: which design will hold the most weight?
What You'll Learn
Solar and wind generate cleanly but only when the sun shines or the wind blows. Matching supply to demand needs storage, interconnection or backup generation, which is why the engineering problem is a whole-system one, not a single-device one.
Key Words
Tap a word to see its definition.
Materials Needed
- card
- pencil
- small motor
- voltmeter
- electric fan
- tape
Safety First
- Keep fingers and hair clear of the fan blades.
- Use the motor as a generator only — do not connect it to mains.
Steps
Read the explanation above and note the two key terms before you start.
Build a small wind turbine from card blades on a pencil axle and measure how the voltage from a small motor changes with fan distance. Plot output against distance and relate the shape to real wind farm siting.
Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.
Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.
Check Your Understanding
Question 1
1 of 2The main engineering challenge with solar and wind is that supply is:
Where you see this in real life
Every bridge, building, and gadget you've ever used started with this.
Stretch Challenge
Try this in real life this week.
Find something that's broken at home and try to figure out *why* it broke.
For the dinner table
“What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”
Next Smart Experiment
We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.
Share this experiment
Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.
Ready?
Renewable Energy in Practice
Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).
Full screen — no distractions
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