Energizing the Future

Funded Jan 18, 2012

The K'nex Renewable Energy Sets are a huge hit in our classroom! The students had a great time building the models and then investigating energy concepts with them. Towards the end of the school year we always need to find activities that are not only educational, but engaging in order to keep the momentum going. This is especially true after state testing.

These kits had my students engrossed from beginning to end. Of course, they learned a lot about generating electricity, but an unexpected result was their collaboration. Students who are newer in the country were able to jump right in to these activities and their classmates were very supportive. When kids are challenged with building models, language barriers disappear. They really looked out for each other!

Once we were done with our experiments (testing variables such as number of blades on the wind turbine, distance from light source on the solar car, and height of water drop on the hydroelectric model), the students wrote essays about the 'tips' they would give to engineers who were designing alternative energy plants in our area. They had to think about maximizing the output of electricity. The students then began connecting the models to each other. Making the solar car run on electricity generated by the wind turbine was their favorite!

Your donation speaks volumes about your commitment to a quality education as a right of every student, regardless of their economic status. I wanted to let you know that it is truly appreciated and invaluable.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Zayas