Reading books can be a great way to learn about new ideas and concepts. For the students at Northpoint Elementary School in Granger, Indiana, reading “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” by William Kamkwamba sparked a new interest in wind power. The book tells the inspiring story of a young boy who built a windmill to generate electricity for his family’s home in Malawi.
After reading the book, the students at Northpoint Elementary School were eager to learn more about wind power and how it can be used to generate electricity. However, they soon realized that they did not have access to any real windmills in their area. When a reporter asked them where the windmills were, the children proudly showed off their paper windmills they had made in class. He asked about real windmills that actually worked. The kids told them they didn’t know how.
Fortunately, a group of former Northpoint Elementary School students known as the Fire Wires heard about the children’s interest in wind power and decided to help. They offered to run a six-week class every Wednesday after school to teach the children how to build a real windmill.
The first project the children did in the class was to build sail cars and have races with them. The top three winners of the sail car races got to choose the side panels of the full-sized windmill’s theme. For the next two weeks, the children worked on the side panels, painting and designing them.
Finally, on the last day of the class, everything came together. The children attached the LEDs and side panels to a 400-watt, 8-foot-tall windmill. They were thrilled to see their hard work pay off as the windmill started to spin and generate electricity.
Through this project, the students at Northpoint Elementary School learned about the power of wind and how it can be used to generate electricity. They also gained valuable skills in design, engineering, and teamwork. This project shows that books can be a great way to inspire and teach children, and that with a little bit of help, they can achieve amazing things.
