Building your own small wind turbine is a great science project for children that teaches them the power of wind and the potential of wind energy. Pinwheels are not only children’s toys or holiday decorations, they are also an educational project. Pinwheels have pockets which catch the wind and harness its power to spin the blades, which makes it a small wind turbine. Consider using this project in a science class when discussing modern wind turbines used to create electricity, or in a history class when discussing the use of windmills or demonstrating weather conditions.
Draw a square on the paper. Use a ruler to insure that your edges are straight. The larger your square, the larger the pinwheel will be. Larger pinwheels are easier to assemble, but take more wind power to operate. If you are not comfortable free-handing the design, printable patterns are available online.
Use a hole puncher to make a hole in each corner. It does not matter whether you punch the hole in the right or left side of the corner as long as you are consistent at all four corners. So if you punch your first whole in the right half of the corner, do the same for the other three.
Place the length of a straw against the back of the turbine, while still holding the corners in place. The straw, which will serve as a handle for you, and as a post to rotate from for the turbine, should come three quarters of the way up the back of the turbine, and be centered so that it covers the hole in the center of the turbine completely