OASIS | Learn: Grandparenting: Science Activities: Make a Windmill

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Make Your Own Windmill

Windmills have been used for many years as a source of inexpensive energy. Windmills can take the energy of the wind and change it to energy that moves in another direction, to grind wheat, for example, or to turn turbines that produce electricity. With this activity you and your grandchild can explore how the shape and angle of a windmill's sails affect how easy it is for the sails to turn.

What You Need:
- Card stock
- Scissors
- Modeling clay
- 16 oz plastic cup
- New pencil with eraser
- Push pin
- Pen
- Template for sail
- Metric ruler

What To Do:

Cut out the sail template. Trace it onto the card stock and cut it out.

Use the pen to make a hole in the bottom of the plastic cup. Put the cup on the table upside down. Push the pencil through the hole so that the eraser sticks up. About 15 cm of the pencil should be sticking up from the cup.

Use modeling clay around the pencil (both inside and outside the cup) to make the pencil steady.

Push the pin through the center of the sail and into the pencil eraser. Move the sail around on the pin so that it spins easily.

Hold the windmill up and walk around rapidly. Watch what happens to the sails.

Take about what you could do to the sails to make them spin more easily. Experiment with how the sails spin when you change their shape.

If desired, use watercolor markers to make the sails colorful.

You can also search the Internet for pictures of actual windmills. How are their sails shaped? Here is a place to start using the Google search engine.

This activity was created as part of the Science Across the Generations program, an OASIS program that brings together mature adults and children to explore the magic of science together.

Find more activities to do with grandchildren.