June 6, 2013
From Villagesoup.org
The Maine Wind Blade Challenge
The Engineering Approach to Problem Solving is a class in Searsport District High School co-taught by Claire Guse and Ray Wirth. Students learn by solving a wide variety of problems, as well as technical writing skills.. To read more please click here.
May 3, 2013
From Energyteachers.org
Orono- After 6 months of research, design and manufacturing hundreds of Maine students and teachers brought their wind blade creations to University of Maine to compete in Wind Blade Challenge May 3.
Each team worked with teachers and a composite partner to design and manufacture their unique designs. Paul Williamson, Director of Maine Wind Industry Initiative, said “the goal of the event is to inspire students’ exploration of alternative energy and composites materials through STEM education. Every year we are impressed with what the students come up with.”
Each blade-design was placed on a turbine in a controlled wind as spectators watched to see how much electrical energy was generated in a circuit with variable load in two minutes; meanwhile teams of students gave presentations to panels of three judges representing industry, explaining their materials, their understanding of wind-power physics, and their process for designing their rotor or base. The combined scores determined the winners.
The competition was tough with teams spinning fast enough to produce as much as 27 volts with their blades. In an glorious upset, first year participants Freeport High School had two teams in the top three. Jon Armory, Freeport teacher described the experience, “It is a wonderful event, and my students learned so much. One thing I really appreciated was letting students retry their blades after the trials, even though these did not count for points. This made the whole event a learning experience where students could play and experiment.”
Different teams followed different paths to get here—One Brunswick teacher told us that their students met after school once a week, working for a total of about 20 hours on their designs and building. The Searsport District High School team worked in an engineering design course that met every other day, devoting about two months of the course to the process of building better and better rotors.
The annual event, put on by the Maine Composites Alliance and Maine Wind Industry Initiative, is a collaborative effort connecting industry with high school students. Seventeen composites-companies including the Advanced Structures & Composites Center, Kenway, and Harbor Technologies worked with students to manufacture their blades in preparation for the challenge. Students used advanced manufacturing techniques and materials.
Results:
1st place—Freeport Team 2
2nd place—Easton High School
3rd place—Freeport High School
Peoples Choice—Foster Technology Center at Mount Blue High School
Teacher of the year—Dan Lemieux from Spruce Mt. High in Jay
Composite Partner of the year—Southern Maine Community College Andrew Schoenberg
Concurrently the University held the Windstorm Challenge. In that competition, 31 teams tested floating bases in a pool to see if they could withstand waves from a wave machine.
You can learn more about the Wind Blade Challenge on their web site:
Likewise, you can learn more about the Windstorm Challenge on their web site:
http://windstormchallenge.com/
May 3, 2013
From WABI
Orono – It was a blustery day at UMaine as more than 500 students from York to Aroostook County competed in two windy challenges.
The Advanced Structures and Composite Center hosted its annual windstorm and wind blade challenges.
“Five years ago, we started this event as an opportunity for students to work through STEM education, to explore composite manufacturing, as well as alternative energy,” said Paul Williamson, Director of the Maine Ocean and Wind Industry Initiative.
“Were asked to design either a floating base or you can design a wind blade and then we just test it and see how much voltage we can put out,” said Emma Michalowski, a senior at Presque Isle High School.
And the more voltage the better.
Teams of students were judged on their turbine as well as a presentation of their design.
“It didn’t tip. It didn’t sink. It didn’t fall over. That’s good and the presentation went well too,” said Ben Ezzy, a freshman at Caribou High School.
“I thought it was a really neat idea to have the wind turbines out in the ocean and I thought it would be really cool getting one that actually goes out to sea one day,” said Kate Finnemore, one of Ezzy’s partners.
In a science world dominated by men, some Presque Isle ladies led the way.
“Being an all girls group, it was kind of difficult and the guys group definitely underestimated us because we’re all girls and we made the blade all pretty and they’re like, you’re not going to do that well, but we beat them,” said senior advance physics student Amanda Bennett.
They even beat a third Presque Isle Team made up of future engineering students.
“We thought the design was sound, but there was some sort of issue that we didn’t predict. Rather ironically our blade was named ‘The Winner,'” said senior Gabe Player.
While the winners of the competition win a paid internship if they attend UMaine, the hands on experience was good for all students.
“They’re learning the modern 21st century learning expectations.They’re getting excited about science they’re learning that its fun and it has a career path,” said Kierston Foley Donovan, advanced physics teacher at Presque Isle High School.
Results for the Wind Blade Challenge:
1st place- Freeport Team 2
2nd place- Easton High School
3rd place- Freeport High School 1
Peoples Choice- Foster Technology Center located at Mount Blue High School
Teacher of the year- Dan Lemieux from Spruce Mt. High in Jay
Composite Partner of the year- Southern Maine Community College Andrew Schoenberg
Results for the Windstorm challenge:
Stability
3rd Place – Marshwood HS
2nd Place – Caribou Middle School
1st Place – Bath Regional Career and Technical Center
Presentation
3rd Place – King Middle School
2nd Place – Marshwood High School
1st Place – Noble High School
Overall winners:
3rd Place – Freeport High School
2nd Place – Traip Academy
1st Place – Old Town High School
First place Windstorm Challenge teams from each category have been awarded an internship at the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center valued at over $20,000, contingent upon their enrollment at the University of Maine.
FARMINGTON — Humans haven’t had much luck reinventing the wheel over the ages, but it took just a few months for students at Foster Technology Center to rethink the windmill.
On April 27, the Foster Tech students finished third in the Maine Wind Blade Challenge, a competition that asked 45 teams from across the state to design and build their own wind blades. The event was sponsored by the Maine Composites Alliance, the Maine Wind Industry Initiative, and the Advanced Structures and Composite Center at the University of Maine at Orono.
The students from Foster Tech succeeded in the competition for one simple reason: Power. While some wind blades fell apart or generated little energy during the competition, Foster Tech’s design generated more voltage than all but one of their competitors.
“As soon as they started spinning, I got excited,” senior Lucas Goodwin said. “Once they started getting going I knew that we were in it to win it.”
Watching their wind blade spin in the breeze was the culmination of months of painstaking tinkering and troubleshooting. Like the other teams in the competition, the Foster Tech students were required to use particular types of foam, fiberglass and resins to construct the wind blades, but given free reign to create their own unique designs.
Over several months, the students worked in the school’s composites workshop — and in physics class — to build the ideal wind blade. By conducting tests on a scale model, Goodwin eventually realized that a design similar to that of a household box fan would generate the optimal voltage. From there, the students began to tweak and twist the blades to catch just the right amount of air.
“If you have the angle really high, it’s going to catch a lot of air, but it’s not going to generate as much power,” senior Cameron Sennick said. “But if you have it flat, it won’t get up to speed quick enough — but it will generate more voltage. So you have to find that happy medium where it gets up to speed and generates the most voltage.”
The school’s composites teacher, John MacDonald, then helped the students construct the wind blades using high-tech composites. By infusing the foam and fiberglass blades with a plastic-like resin, the students created a composite material that strengthened the structure without adding significant weight.
“You introduce a hardening plastic,” Goodwin said. “It utilizes the strengths of each product to give an end product that has properties greater than the whole. It’s kind of like two plus two equals five.”
It’s that material alchemy — perhaps more so than designing an efficient wind blade — that excites Goodwin, Sennick and MacDonald. Next fall, Sennick will study construction management at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Goodwin will enroll at the University of Maine at Orono, where he’ll study civil engineering and work at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
It’s highly likely that Goodwin and Sennick will work with composites in their careers, whether they pursue construction, renewable energy or the dozens of other specialties that have come to rely on strong, lightweight composites. With events such as the Maine Wind Blade Challenge sparking interest in composites, there’s no telling what the future could bring, MacDonald said.
“The composites industry is where they were in the ’70s with laptop computers. It’s an explosion — it’s just growing every year,” said MacDonald, who won the 2012 Teacher of the Year award from the Maine Composites Alliance. “The technology advances every year, and we’re just trying to promote its use and knowledge about it.”
The Maine Wind Blade Challenge is an event that brings science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education into the hands of high school students. The event is a collaborative effort where educators, industry, and students come together to enjoy a day of friendly competition. The Wind Blade Challenge is an educational event that is free for students to participate, made possible by sponsors and endorsed by educators.
Two teams of students, from BRCTC, will participate in the 4th Annual Wind Blade Challenge at the University of Maine, Orono on Friday, April 27, 2012. The teams are charged with designing and fabricating a wind blade assembly that will generate the most energy over a given time period (3 minutes or less). The wind blade assembly is to consist of a set of blades attached to a center hub. The wind blades are to be made using only materials provided (three 18”x3”x6” polyisocyanurate foam blocks, fiberglass cloth and polyester or vinyl ester resin) and fabricated using the Vacuum Infusion Process (VIP). The hub may be made of any material as long as it meets the design requirements outlined in the Design Guidelines and Rules. For more information: mainewindbladechallenge.com
While the two teams are participating in the Wind Blade Challenge two other teams from the same BRCTC class will be competing in the DeepCwind Consortium’s Windstorm Challenge, also being held at Orono on Friday, April 27, 2012.
The DeepCwind Consortium’s Windstorm challenge is a comprehensive high school invention competition focusing on deepwater offshore wind technology. Developed in partnership with the University of Maine and the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the Windstorm Challenge tasks teams to design and construct a floating platform for a scale model wind turbine, then create a thorough business plan and sales pitch. The winning team members who attend the University of Maine receive a $20,000 paid internship at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center – a rare opportunity for first-year students to be part of one of the leading research institutions in the United States. For more information: windstormchallenge.com
Aroostook County has been working with the idea of wind power for sometime now. And it’s part of what inspired some students at Easton High School to enter the 4th annual wind blade challenge. And as NewsSource 8 ‘s Kelly O’Mara explains, the risk really paid off.
Windstorm Challenge 2012 and 4th Annual Maine Wind Blade Challenge were held on Friday at the New Balance Student Recreation Center on the University of Maine campus, reported Bangor Daily News.
The competitions in which students design, build, implement and test wind power technology components gathered competitors from more than 40 schools throughout the state.
The DeepCwind Consortium’s Windstorm Challenge is a middle and high school invention competition focusing on deepwater offshore wind technology. The challenge asks teams to design and construct a floating platform for a scale model wind turbine, and then to create a thorough business plan and sales field.
The Consortium’s mission is to establish the State of Maine as a national leader in deepwater offshore wind technology through a research initiative funded by the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and others.
The Wind Blade Challenge program is developed by the Maine Composites Alliance in partnership with the Advanced Structures and Composites Center and the Maine Wind Industry Initiative. It matches high school students with manufacturers in Maine to research, design and manufacture wind blade models.
The students tested their components in the recreation center swimming pool, and the challenge ended with teams competing for the most efficient wind blade invention.
The wind power technology components are similar to those used in a University of Maine research program in deepwater offshore wind power.
ORONO, Maine – Easton High School took the high honors in the Maine Wind Blade Challenge and Madison Area Memorial High School took first place in the Wind Storm Challenge. These teams were among 85 teams representing over 250 students that competed in the 4th annual competition to inspire students to design composite wind blades and floating wind structures. The event was hosted at the University Maine through day long events this Friday.
The Maine Wind Blade Challenge was developed by Maine Composites Alliance (MCA) in partnership with Advanced Structures and Composites Center and the Maine Wind Industry Initiative (MWII) to inspire student exploration of alternative energy and advanced materials by participating in a hands-on application of math, science and engineering.
The Wind Blade Challenge partners high school teams with Maine advanced composites manufacturers to research, design, and manufacture model wind blades. Each team must compete against other teams to generate the most energy over 2-minute period, and make presentations illustrating the research, design and engineering processes.
The Windstorm Challenge asks teams of middle and high school students to design and construct a floating platform for a scale model wind turbine and deliver a business plan and sales pitch to a panel of expert judges. Teams are critiqued on technical feasibility and aesthetic design of their platform, as well as the quality of their sales pitch. The Windstorm Challenge encourages an interdisciplinary approach to solve large problems.
The top three teams for Wind Blade Challenge were: 1st, Easton; 2nd, Presque Isle Team 3; and 3rd, Mt Blue High School (Farmington).
The top three teams for Wind Storm Challenge were: 1st, Madison Area Memorial High School Team 1; 2nd, Madison Area Memorial High School 2; and 3rd, Boothbay Region High School.
The Maine Composites Alliance (MCA) is an alliance of composite businesses in Maine who work together to recognize and promote Maine’s leadership in the international composite industry. MCA aims to enhance the competitiveness of Maine’s existing composite industry by providing opportunities for new commercial ventures, and by providing education and training for members and their employees.
The Maine Wind Industry Initiative is a cooperative effort between 6 Maine trades associations to develop the wind and ocean energy supply chain using local Maine content and promote wind energy workforce development.
The DeepCwind Consortium’s mission is to establish the State of Maine as a national leader in deepwater offshore wind technology through a research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Advanced Structures and Composites Center is a state-of-the-art one-stop-shop for integrated composite materials and structural component development. Located at the University of Maine, it offers in-house capabilities for developing a composite product or structure from the conceptual stage through research, manufacturing of prototypes, comprehensive testing and evaluation, code approval and commercialization.
Over 250 students representing 85 teams competed in the fourth annual competition to design composite wind turbine blades and floating wind structures, the Maine Wind Industry Initiative reports.
The event, which was held at the University of Maine, partnered high school teams with Maine advanced composites manufacturers to research, design and manufacture model wind turbine blades. Each team competed to generate the most energy over a two-minute period and made presentations illustrating the research, design and engineering processes.
The students designed and constructed a floating platform for a model wind turbine and delivered a business plan and sales pitch to a panel of expert judges. Teams were critiqued on the technical feasibility and aesthetic design of their platform, as well as the quality of their sales pitch.
Easton High School won first place in the Maine Wind Blade Challenge, and Madison Area Memorial High School took first place in the Wind Storm Challenge.
Orono – It wasn’t just a day at the pool for some high school students.
” So much build up. So many late nights, so finally getting here and getting into the pool was really capping off the experience,” said Dylan Fowler, a senior from Gray-New Gloucester.
Teams competed on land and in the water at the University of Maine in Orono.
” I’ve seen some designs I’ve never thought about, so it’s really very exciting to see how much thought they’ve put into the work,” said Habib Dagher, director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
Students get help from mentors, but the designs are all their own work.
” This one you really go to do any design you wanted,” said Levi Hooper, a senior at Winthrop High School.
For the Windstorm Challenge, students had to design the floating portion of the turbine. It was tested in a simulated wind and wave storm.
” The team that has the smallest movements, moves the least, wins the competition,” explained Dagher.
The team from Winthrop had a lot of success in the water.
” To see that it did that well, makes us, well, we’re really happy about it,” said Cameron Macmillan, a team member.
The group from Gray-New Gloucester High School also put on a good show.
” It was kind of intimidating seeing some of the other projects like the one with the ball bearings that worked really well. Ours seemed kind of simple in comparison, but it worked,” said Joseph Archenbault, a team member.
Winning the competitions comes with more than just bragging rights, it comes with a big opportunity.
” The winning team gets a $20,000 scholarship to come work in our lab at the University,” said Dagher.
It’s a prize a lot of the students want to put to good use.
There will be a Windstorm Challenge Summer Camp this July. For more information, click here.