The test of turbines

Paper wind turbines were turning on Feb. 24 as IB science students were given the task of creating a turbine that would be able to lift 100 grams to the height of a cafeteria table. The students were in groups of four, with at least one biology, chemistry, and physics student, and were given a fan, paper, straws, string, and a hot glue gun.

A collaborative science project has always been a requirement for the IB diploma. However, the approach that was taken was incredibly different this year from the past.

“In the years past, we have always done a research-based presentation, but this year, we decided to switch it up and take a science fair approach to this project,” IB biology teacher Joy Rooney said.

The students ran many practice trials at home and had to work collaboratively in order to be successful.

“The greatest difficulty was working with the resources available and having to create a few different models before we found one that worked,” senior Aaron Adams said.

Apart from just completing the IB requirement of having this project, the teachers also included a competitive aspect to this project by agreeing to buy fifteen dollar gift cards for the members of the team that took the shortest amount of time to complete the task.

The team consisting of senior Shiraz de Vreede, junior Sameer Kunte, junior Anirudh Patchipulusu, and junior Morgan Haworth presented second and got the shortest time of all the groups.

“We were pretty confident with our design because we had tested it before. On the day we were supposed to build, we put all of our ideas together and it worked beautifully,” Haworth said.

The decision to change the group four project allowed for more creativity and cooperation when compared to past years.

The project taught the students about the design for efficient wind turbines along with other valuable lessons that were learned in the creating process.

“While the bones of the group four project didn’t change very much, we as teachers were looking for a way to make it more about team work, motivation, and collaboration. Students were supposed to bring their strengths and their particular knowledge to the project,” Rooney said.