Before planning a KidWind Challenge, it's important to review the Challenge Rulebooks because the rules may change slightly each year, and they provide helpful insight on what an event should look like. Read the most up to date KidWind Wind and Solar Rulebooks here!

Who is coming?

Are you limiting this event to teams from your school or organization, or opening it to other local teams? Will the event be open to non-school groups (home-schooled students, scouts, 4-H, friends)?

What age divisions will this event be open to? Most Challenges have up to three of the following age divisions, but it's up to the event organizers to decide which grades are welcome and how they are grouped.

  • Elementary (4th-5th grades)
  • Middle School (6th-8th grades)
  • High School (9th-12th grades)

Where will the event be held?

Here are a few venue options to consider:

  • Your own facility (school, organization building, etc.)
  • Partner organization
  • Rental venue

Consider what space options are available, and how an event would work within the space. When exploring options there are several questions that may come up besides calendar availability:

  • Are tables and chairs available for use or will they need to be rented?
  • Can students bring their own food or are they limited to any on-site options?
  • Are projectors and sound systems available for use and if so ,is there a charge?
  • Is there on-site parking and are parking passes required?
  • Where are the emergency exits and are the pathways clear based on your planned layout?
  • What are the occupancy limits of the different spaces in the venue? 

Other considerations that may come up, but are not common:

  • Are there any areas that are off-limits that need to be clearly marked? An older building with a grand staircase might be a tempting location for students to explore looking for a quiet spot to rehearse their presentations - even if the event is clearly being kept to one area, signage and instruction to not enter other areas may be needed.
  • Is the venue ADA compliant and clearly marked?
  • Additional signage may be needed to direct persons safely into the building. Is there a green space?
  • Will there be an attendee with a support animal on-site? If so, make sure to have any helpful information on-hand for them as well as access to water.

How long do you have?

During the school day, after school, or a weekend?

If you are hosting a school level Challenge with only teams from one school, we suggest building time into your school day or having an after school Challenge.

If you are hosting a regional event with teams from more than one school, we suggest a Saturday event. If you are planning on fewer than 6 teams, a 2-3 hour event should be enough time to run everyone through the tunnels. For 6-12 teams, we recommend 3-4 hours, and for 12-20 teams, a full day event (8am-3pm or 9am-4pm).

Consider the distance teams are traveling when planning your schedule and long it will take them to get to the venue. For some regions the local school districts and teachers might prefer their students attend an event during the standard school week, but also might require students be back at the school by a certain time due to the bus schedule or other extracurricular activities.

Which event components will you have?

KidWind Challenges look different across the map, but they all have time for teams to test their projects and talk through their designs with judges. Many events have additional components meant to test teamwork and probe at the students’ level of understanding.

Core Components 

Core events are the required component at every KidWind Challenge.

Tunnel Testing: Teams must run their turbine through a wind tunnel to evaluate its power output. 

Unscheduled Method Tunnel Testing

It typically takes about 3 minutes for a team to run a test. During this time the team’s turbine and energy sensor is placed into the wind tunnel to prepare for a 30 second run before removing the turbine and sensor. This is the typical format for most events as teams will form a line to enter the testing area and return to the end of the line after each run. The posted schedule will share when tunnel testing is available, any breaks where the tunnel will be shut down, and when the tunnel will have a hard close for the event day. There will be a single run recording each time a team goes through the tunnel testing line. Teams may be limited to a specific number of runs based on availability

Scheduled Method Tunnel Testing

It typically takes 5-10 minutes for a team to do this. Teams are assigned a specific time slot during this time the team’s turbine and energy sensor is placed into the wind tunnel to prepare for as many 30 second runs as possible while making minor adjustments to their turbine before removing. If time allows in the schedule, there may be two time slots for each team allowing for bigger adjustments to be made.

Both unscheduled and scheduled methods have pros and cons to consider. With the unscheduled method, teams can be strategic in what changes they make to their turbine between testing and have more time to make those changes and any repairs. With the scheduled method teams have to be more prepared to make adjustments quickly to maximize the data collection as they will not have time for discussion. When using the scheduled method, it can be important to set-up a practice wind tunnel that is accessible to teams so that they can test their turbine and be sure things are working properly.

Solar Home Testing: While the primary testing of the solar device will occur during solar judging, it is important to set-up a Solar Test Environment that is accessible to teams so that they can test their device and be sure things are working properly. As the Solar KidWind Challenge evolves, testing has also evolved. Testing may evaluate the team's creativity and understanding of the circuitry involved in the solar home, or it may be a quantitative measurement outlined by the organizer.

Additional Components 

Turbine Judging: A panel of judges will examine the turbine or solar home and ask the team questions about their design process. Typically, teams come to the judging room with a short presentation and documentation of their process. Teams often use a poster board, notebook, or powerpoint presentation. At a minimum, judges should provide documented constructive feedback based on the presentation.

Many organizers ask teams to submit a turbine profile form based on their level (novice or advanced) to them organizer or directly to the judges. This form provides the judges with some basic information to help inform questions. Turbine judging is scheduled in 10-20 minute intervals, depending on how many judges and teams you have and the time of your event.

Unscheduled Method Turbine Judging

This scenario can be more informal, with the judges going to each team and spending time talking to them about their project. It can also involve a poster session style scenario with the team preparing signage with imagery and information about the device to be on display for evaluation.

Scheduled Method Turbine Judging

Formal presentations are a scheduled component at Challenges. Teams should be prepared to limit their presentation to allow judges to ask questions. For example, in a 20 minute time slot, teams will typically set up their turbine in 1-3 minutes, present for 10 minutes, and answer judges' questions for 6 minutes.

Solar Home Judging: A panel of judges will examine the solar home and ask the team questions about their design process. Typically, teams come to the judging room with a short presentation and documentation of their process. Teams often use a poster board, notebook, or powerpoint presentation. At a minimum, judges should provide documented constructive feedback based on the presentation.

Solar Challenge organizers and teams should consult the Solar Rulebook to see what materials they're required to bring to the event, including solar panel schematics, wiring diagrams, and a report.

Solar device judging is scheduled in 10-20 minute intervals, depending on how many judges and teams you have and the time of your event. Additional time in between judging sessions may be needed to allow the team to set up their solar device. A timekeeper can help keep everyone on time and prevent teams from entering the room before the judges are ready for them.

Unscheduled Method Solar Device Judging

This scenario can be more informal, with the judges going to each team and spending some time talking to them about their project. It can also involve a poster session style scenario with the team preparing signage with imagery and information about the device to be on display for evaluation.

Scheduled Method Solar Device Judging

In a formal presentation this is a scheduled component. Teams should be prepared to limit their presentation to allow judges to ask questions. Teams should be prepared to limit their presentation to allow judges to ask questions. For example, in a 20 minute time slot, teams will typically set up their turbine in 1-3 minutes, present for 10 minutes, and answer judges' questions for 6 minutes. A timekeeper can help keep everyone on time and prevent teams from entering the room before the judges are ready for them.

Instant Challenges: At some KidWind Challenges, teams may be asked to put their clean energy knowledge to work in an Instant Challenge. These Instant Challenges should present an on-the-spot challenge to teams that they can figure out in an allotted time period. We typically schedule Instant Challenges in 30 minute intervals with 3-4 teams competing at the same time. Take a look at our Instant Challenge bank or our Activities page to get some ideas.

Scheduled Method Instant Challenge

An Instant Challenge should be kept ‘top secret’ and not in a visible location for the teams not actively completing the challenge to prevent any teams from having an advantage that would complete the area later in the day. Rubrics may allow all teams the possibility of earning the same points, or may be determined based on a ranking method.

Unscheduled Method Instant Challenge

An Instant Challenge can also be set up as an experimentation station. In this scenario teams may be required to complete the station with scored rubrics being a “completed” or “not completed” point assignment and are not assigned a specific time. This style works well when space is not available to have the Instant Challenge in a separate area, and when introducing a completely new activity to see how it works with the students.

Knowledge Tests: At some events, teams may be asked to complete a test or quiz to test their clean energy knowledge. Here are some examples of questions that may appear on a knowledge test. 

Scheduled Method Knowledge Test

Teams are assigned a specific time, and the test is taken as a group in a quiet or private area with a proctor. This may also look like all the teams in one division taking the knowledge test at the same time. Paper exams and Kahoot style quizzes are examples of methods that have been used.

Unscheduled Method Knowledge Test

This version is more to help evaluate where the challenge teams are at in their knowledge and can be made into a fun thing. Teams can be met with a paper quiz and asked to complete it as a team by a deadline. The organizers can then go over the answers with the entire group as after quizzes are turned in as a break in the day to bring everyone back together for announcements, or to stall for time at the end of the day while scores are being tallied.

Building your Schedule

Now that you have decided on which components your Challenge will include, you can build your schedule. Regardless of how long you have, each KidWind Challenge follows the same basic trajectory. If you are unable to set up for the event the day before, be sure that the schedule for you and the volunteers starts earlier to allow for each station to be completed. Having point people responsible for the materials and set-up of specific stations identified in advance can help this process go more quickly when time is limited.

KidWind Challenge Sample Schedule

Teams get settled

Teams arrive, find the area that will act as their ‘home base’ for the day, re-assemble their structures, and get ready for the day.

Welcome

The organizer or host gathers everyone to introduce the plan for the day. Remember to include restroom locations and safety protocols. This is also a good time to introduce who students and coaches should approach if they have an issue.

Competition

The majority of time on Challenge Day will be for the main competition components. More teams means more time required to get through all of the unscheduled and scheduled events.

Unscheduled events

Typically teams manage their own timing for running their turbine through the wind tunnel(s). As you will see on our sample Judging Form, there is room for 3 power readings. At some events organizers provide tokens or tickets that limit how many times a team can run their turbine through the tunnel. At solar events, there will also be a Solar Test Environment available so that teams can do any last minute tinkering before judging. This means it is not a scheduled activity, but the expectation is that all teams will make time on their own to do these things.

There may also be other components that are unscheduled, these are more likely to be a type of ‘experimentation station’ to introduce the students to new information in a hands-on scenario. This may be an unscored component or a ‘completed’ vs ‘not completed’ check box scenario.

Scheduled events

Other components like Instant Challenges, knowledge tests, and wind and solar judging are typically timed events that are scheduled per team. Each team will need individual time with judges, most often in 10-20 minute sessions. Instant Challenges and knowledge tests may be able to accommodate multiple teams at once, and may need closer to 30 minutes.

Again, how much time it takes for a team to make their way through all the event components will largely depend on the number of teams in attendance at the event.

Score Tabulation (don’t forget about this!)

Be sure to leave enough time to calculate the final scores. For events with smaller numbers, you may be able to do this in under 30 minutes. We recommend leaving at least 1 hour in case you find any discrepancies. Having a dedicated runner available to collect scoresheets from the different component areas as they are completed can also allow the main scorekeeper to enter scores throughout the day. The more components included, the more important this becomes.

This time, affectionately known as ‘stalling’ can be used for additional duties and presentations before closing. Examples include teams cleaning up their area, a local sponsor/industry professional/location host giving a presentation about their program, or even Q&A back and forth with the students.

Closing

At the end of the event, organizers thank participants, celebrate successes, and award top prizes.

Breakdown

Teams breakdown all structures and the organizers breakdown the tunnel, etc.

Other Reminders

Support your local teams and coaches

Check in with coaches as they are preparing to attend the Challenge. You may want to visit their classrooms to provide assistance and to give the teams an idea of what to expect on Challenge Day. You may also want to provide additional materials or resources to teams that may have fewer financial resources. In some areas, nearby coaches may want to bring their teams together to do a practice tunnel run.

You may find that doing a regularly scheduled email to all the coaches helps make sure that everyone has the most up to date information. If one coach sends in a question, you can be sure there is another one that hasn’t taken the time to ask it yet.

Find Judges & Volunteers

Tap into local organizations, universities, and professional networks to find volunteers able to be on site and run the event components. You will want 2-3 judges per division to handle the turbine or solar judging. Instant challenges should have 2-3 people prepping, implementing, and evaluating performance. Your wind tunnel will need at least one person to run the tunnel and another 1-2 to help with crowd control. You may also want someone at the tool table to help trouble-shoot when students/teams get stuck or need to make a repair.

We have been successful asking local solar, wind, and utility companies, as well as to local engineering unions to volunteer. Local universities or technical colleges also often have excited volunteers. If there is a local school faculty member, such as the principal or superintendent that is interested but not ready to commit to their students participating, inviting them to volunteer at an event can be the best way to let them see what it's all about and recruit their school as a participant in the next year.

A good rule of thumb to follow is 1 adult for every 10 students for supervision purposes - this does include the coaches and can include your team and volunteers if needed.

Secure a Wind Tunnel & Data Capturing Gear

Are you going to buy a wind tunnel, rent one from KidWind, or make one? You can buy this tunnel through KidWind for $3,499 or rent one for $600. Contact Mike at michael@kidwind.org to purchase or rent a wind tunnel. You can also make your own using these instructions. If you are on a limited budget and not ready to make such a commitment, it is possible that we can lend you a wind tunnel, or connect you to someone local that may have one. In addition to the tunnel, you will need the right equipment to measure output. Be sure to order this gear with plenty of time. Tunnels typically take 4-6 weeks to get out to you.

Note: Depending on your area the KidWind team may know of a school or organization local to your area that already has a wind tunnel and is willing to lend assistance.

Order Trophies, Prizes, and/or Certificates for Winners

How you celebrate top performers at the event will largely depend on your budget, partners, and sponsors. Some events have a handful of awards or plaques made at a local trophy shop. Those with more resources might provide monetary awards. Templates for printable certificates are available for solar and wind. 

KidWind created a template for a low cost trophy option using a simple base and laser printing with acrylic. Find the components here:

What Else?

  • Now that you have the basics figured out, here are some other things to consider (if you have room in your budget!)
  • Are you going to provide t-shirts?
  • Are you providing food for the teams?
  • Are you providing food (breakfast/lunch) for the volunteers?
  • Do you have a guest speaker coming?
  • Do you have an AV system/microphone set-up for the welcome/closing?