REFLECTION ON NATIONAL KIDWIND CHALLENGE 2022 IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
As I head home to Chicago, I wanted to share a reflection to the staff at KidWind, about the National KidWind Challenge and the experiences we had
being involved with this event.
It was amazing to view such imaginative ingenuity of
students and their products from elementary school through college. Just witnessing the results of so many
students’ mindsets to solve problems related to energy generation makes me more
hopeful for our future. The future of
the human species on this pale blue planet.
The absolute wealth of imagination, ideas, and
problem-solving, that I witnessed at this KidWind event, is a true testament to
the powerful influence that KidWind, as an organization, has upon education in
the 21st century. Your
efforts to pull together such a dynamic and inspiring engineering-based project
will resonate for years to come with these students, teachers, and their
schools!
Even after months of research, testing and problem-solving
at our school, we had to faced-down several obstacles and challenges in the
performance of our machine in the testing tunnels on Tuesday and Wednesday. My students, experienced in manipulating their
machine, were quick to diagnosis and brainstorm solutions. Students and coaches faced down these
problems, but it does generate a stressful situation that can only be successfully
addressed with a calm and thoughtful response.
This was our first venture to the National KidWind Event,
and I must admit I was really stressed out for a good portion of the time. Even after 3 years of involvement in KidWind,
I feel like I still stumble and bumble along sometimes and just guess as to
what to do next. With time, I know that
this process becomes less hectic and more manageable, but it really tries my patience
at times, to the breaking point. I have
been teaching for 27 years with education at the doctoral level, but this
process, from the regional competition and through the national competition,
taxes my ingenuity to its limit!
Last year, students at St. Thomas participated in the virtual
national event with two teams of 6th grade students (11 students),
but this year I had high hope for my top-flight 8th grade team of
two students to do well at this in-person event. This year, I felt was the real test to see
how we measure up with teams from across the nation after participating for
three years with KidWind.
I have time now to reflect and analyze what we could have
done better and what worked well. It is
a sobering effort, but it needs to be done to get better for next year. I saw teams with a lot of technology employed
in their design and then I saw team with the similar technology that our team
had, but they surpass these high-tech studs.
It gets down to finding the sweet spot in design that delivers maximum
performance (energy), while integrating blade design and gear ratios. At the event this week, I saw superior blade
design exceed benefits of the size of gear ratios. Once a team consistently reaches the maximum
output possible for the small KidWind turbine, then they can focus on delivering
a superior judge presentation and doubling down on knowledge and experience of the
challenges.
Thanks again for all your efforts and the time commitment to
the KidWind organization. I look forward
to participating next year with a new group of students that will stretch their
imaginations to the limit. These are the
essential 21st century skills and abilities that our students need
to master to successfully solve problems we face in energy production and in
dealing with the social issues of our time.
