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TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind
published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
supported by the International Business Machines
This lesson plan explores engineering design principles through an experiment to construct and operate a working anemometer (a device to measure wind speed). Students work in teams to design and build their own anemometers from everyday items. They also explore the relationship between rotation and tangential velocity as they develop ways to measure and chart rotations at different wind speeds. Focus of the lesson: How to apply knowledge of physics concepts in measurements and design of measuring instruments?

The lesson follows a module format that includes objectives and learner outcomes, problem sets, student guides, recommended reading, illustrated procedures, worksheets, and background information about the engineering connections. The lesson plan and student worksheets are available for download.

This collection is part of TryEngineering.org, a website maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education Practices
- Active Learning
General Physics
- Measurement/Units
Other Sciences
- Engineering
- Meteorology
- High School
- Middle School
- Instructional Material
= Activity
= Instructor Guide/Manual
= Laboratory
= Lesson/Lesson Plan
= Student Guide
- Audio/Visual
= Image/Image Set
Intended Users Formats Ratings
- Learners
- Educators
- application/pdf
- application/ms-word
- text/html
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Free access
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© 2009 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Keywords:
angular velocity, applied physics, engineering activity, engineering design, engineering lessons, engineering practices, meteorology, wind, wind power
Record Cloner:
Metadata instance created July 24, 2012 by Gnana Subramaniam
Record Updated:
August 10, 2020 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
April 6, 2011
Other Collections:

AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version)

3. The Nature of Technology

3B. Design and Systems
  • 6-8: 3B/M1. Design usually requires taking into account not only physical and biological constraints, but also economic, political, social, ethical, and aesthetic ones.
  • 6-8: 3B/M4a. Systems fail because they have faulty or poorly matched parts, are used in ways that exceed what was intended by the design, or were poorly designed to begin with.
  • 6-8: 3B/M4b. The most common ways to prevent failure are pretesting of parts and procedures, overdesign, and redundancy.
  • 9-12: 3B/H6. To reduce the chance of system failure, performance testing is often conducted using small-scale models, computer simulations, analogous systems, or just the parts of the system thought to be least reliable.

4. The Physical Setting

4F. Motion
  • 6-8: 4F/M3a. An unbalanced force acting on an object changes its speed or direction of motion, or both.

9. The Mathematical World

9B. Symbolic Relationships
  • 9-12: 9B/H1b. Sometimes the rate of change of something depends on how much there is of something else (as the rate of change of speed is proportional to the amount of force acting).

11. Common Themes

11A. Systems
  • 6-8: 11A/M2. Thinking about things as systems means looking for how every part relates to others. The output from one part of a system (which can include material, energy, or information) can become the input to other parts. Such feedback can serve to control what goes on in the system as a whole.
11B. Models
  • 9-12: 11B/H5. The behavior of a physical model cannot ever be expected to represent the full-scale phenomenon with complete accuracy, not even in the limited set of characteristics being studied. The inappropriateness of a model may be related to differences between the model and what is being modeled.
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Record Link
AIP Format
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2009), WWW Document, (https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/).
AJP/PRST-PER
TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2009), <https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/>.
APA Format
TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind. (2011, April 6). Retrieved April 25, 2024, from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/
Chicago Format
International Business Machines. TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, April 6, 2011. https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/ (accessed 25 April 2024).
MLA Format
TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2009. 6 Apr. 2011. International Business Machines. 25 Apr. 2024 <https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/>.
BibTeX Export Format
@misc{ Title = {TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind}, Publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, Volume = {2024}, Number = {25 April 2024}, Month = {April 6, 2011}, Year = {2009} }
Refer Export Format

%T TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind %D April 6, 2011 %I Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers %U https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/ %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Electronic Source %D April 6, 2011 %T TryEngineering: Measuring the Wind %I Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers %V 2024 %N 25 April 2024 %8 April 6, 2011 %9 application/pdf %U https://tryengineering.org/teacher/measuring-wind/


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