How Windmills & Turbines Generate Electricity

As Earth Day approaches some teachers may be leading lessons about alternative energy sources. One of the more popular alternative energies where I live (Maine, USA) is wind energy. In my home state wind energy has been often discussed over the last couple of years as both an economic development plan and as an emissions reduction plan. Today, while stumbling around YouTube I came across a couple of videos that explain how wind is used to generate electricity.

Here's a short animated explanation of how wind is used to generate electricity.

This subtitled video explains how wind turbines work.

Applications for Education

As mentioned above, teachers who are planning lessons on alternative energy for Earth Day may find these short videos to be good supplements to their lessons. A quick search of YouTube will also lead you to directions for building small windmills and wind turbines. Constructing a small windmill could be a good hands-on project for students to do to experience how a windmill can create electricity.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:

Earth Day Resources from Scholastic

Lesson Plans About Fuels, Energy, and Automobiles

Planet Earth on iTunes - Get the 1st Episode Free