USD 273 Beloit Team Advances to National KidWind Challenge in San Antonio

A student team from Beloit will represent Kansas in May at the National KidWind Challenge in San Antonio.

Teams advanced to the national competition after earning top-three finishes in their divisions at the Kansas KidWind Challenge on April 2nd in Topeka.  The event is sponsored by the Kansas Energy Program in Kansas State University's Engineering Extension Service, in partnership with the Kansas Corporation Commission.  This year's competition featured approximately 80 students from 22 schools throughout the state, including eight teams of fourth through eighth graders and 13 teams of ninth through 12th graders.

Each team had to research, design, and build its own wind turbine to test in a wind tunnel that is 4 feet by 4 feet.  Each team was awarded points in four areas: turbine performance, a knowledge quiz, an instant challenge and a judge's panel, where the team members have to present their design-and-build process.

The Gerald la Turbina team from Beloit Junior-High School earned 86.7 points out of a possible 100 to finish in first place in the fourth through eighth grade division.  Team members are Charlie Burke, Luke Cheney, Jayc Darnall and Joel Rexroat.  The team is coached by Christie Fouts.  This team also achieved the highest energy output in its division with 106.4 joules.

"The KidWind Challenge is a great exercise in active learning," said David Carter, director of the Kansas Energy Program.  "We pay close attention to the teams' improvements from the regional to state challenge; some teams improved turbine performance by 248% and turbine efficiency by 955%."