STIIX Wind Turbine Project: Powering STIIX-Ville with Renewable Energy
In the STIIX Wind Turbine Project, students become energy engineers in STIIX-Ville, tackling the challenge of building a working wind turbine to power their community. Their mission: design, build, and test a turbine capable of lifting a weight with wind power—modeling how real turbines generate energy.
Through approximately 3–5 hours of class programming, learners engage in a full engineering design cycle. The curriculum includes five scaffolded video modules—Intro, Academic Concepts, How-To Build, Testing & Evaluation, and a Career Spotlight—with real-world applications and career connections. Students explore how blade size, shape, number, and pitch influence the power produced and how to optimize their design for maximum energy conversion.
During the build phase, students construct their turbines using STIIX modular components, then test them using wind sources (like fans or a hairdryer) and measure how much “power” their turbine can generate by observing how much weight their design can lift. Through iterative testing, teams refine their models—adjusting blade geometry, angle, or material to improve performance.
As they analyze performance and redesign, students wrestle with real engineering trade-offs: optimizing efficiency vs simplicity, tweaking for strength vs flexibility, and adjusting for stability vs power. These lessons mirror renewable energy engineering challenges faced by professionals.
Teachers receive full support with ready-to-use guides: slide decks, build logs, evaluation worksheets, and reflection prompts aligned to NGSS (e.g., energy transfer and engineering design)
Bring structure and excitement to hands-on learning with STIIX-Ville — your digital hub for project guides, assessments, and student progress tracking.
What’s Included in the Box:
- STIIX structural sticks & connectors
- Rotor blades / turbine arm components
- Base or mounting pieces
- Hub / rotor disc
- Load-lifting components (hook or weight system)
- Build-log and design-sketch worksheets
- Testing & evaluation guide (measuring lift, performance)
- Reflection & iteration prompts
- Teacher slide deck and lesson plan
- Instructional video series (5 modules: Intro, Academic, How-To, Testing, Career)
