?Catching the Wind? Day Camp Held

This past week at the Washington County Extension Office, 7 students were able to participate in a ?Catching the Wind? Day Camp exploring how wind affects the world and plays a role as an energy source. During the first half of the day, students spent time deciphering what defines technology and what defines an engineer. Using that knowledge, students then participated in a "sail race" where each group of students had the chance to engineer a sail that they thought would carry them across a 9-foot span of fishing line that served as the "lake." Not only did students create several high quality sails, but one group was able to make it across the entire nine foot "lake!"

During the second half of the day students learned about a type of wind power that is a little closer to home: wind turbines. Students were then given the opportunity to create their own wind turbines and see which turbine could pull up the greatest amount of washers with wind power that they created on their turbines. The largest amount of washers that any group was able to pull up by the end of the day, was 21 washers with the wind turbine that they created! Students really enjoyed the competition and learned a lot about the importance of wind energy especially here in Iowa.

Overall, students had a blast not only learning about wind, but also having the chance to engineer and create amazing technological devices that they were able to take home later that day.

For more information about the Washington County 4-H program, contact the Washington County Extension Office, 319-653-4811.