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Bain Anderson and Aubrey Hegwood are no strangers to the state KidWind Challenge. The pair competed at state last year as sixth graders, and this year as seventh graders they upped their game at the regional competition and scored the most joules(wattage) that had been recorded at a KIDWind event in Kansas with their little generator, 56.99 Joules. They received first place, Judges Choice, and most Artistic voted on by the kids that participated.
That got them to the state competition, where they had to design and build their own motor, and things did not look promising for the pair to qualify to represent their school and community in the world competition.
“We had less than three weeks to get it done and burned lots of midnight oil,” said Kepley Science teacher and KidWind sponsor Kim Sandoval.
But the Friday before the state competition in Salina, the boys ran into some problems, so Sandoval was going to take the original turbine they used to qualify with and not the one they just built, “But we said no we’ve worked too hard, so we loaded it up and they made it,” Sandoval said.
“Late at night the night before, they finally got positive joules out,” Sandoval said.
And in May they will represent Kepley Middle School in Arizona.
“These guys made history, this is the first team that will ever get to go for nationals – international because we have teams that come from Taiwan,” said Sandoval. “They get to represent Ulysses, Kansas, which is pretty sweet.”
Now that they’ve qualified for the world competition, the boys are building a new wind turbine.
“We’re starting to 3D print most of the components of the wind turbine so that we can get the right dimensions to them because we’ve had problems with the KidWind stuff not being precise enough for our needs,” Anderson said.
The components are printed on a 3D printer that the school bought with a $2,000 grant it received last year.
“It’s phenomenal what these things can do,” Sandoval said. “
Sandoval started the program a few years ago when Stacy Gee was principal at the school.
“I give my credit to starting this to Stacy Gee,” Sandoval said. “I asked her if I could start it, and she said, ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ and I said ‘Absolutely not’ but we jumped in headfirst and, gosh, we got there. So that’s really exciting because these guys helped me put the effort for it.”
The boys are seeking sponsorships to be able to afford going to Arizona next month. Sandoval said they would need $6,000 to go and less than a month to come up with it.
Sandoval, the two boys and Deborah Hegwood will be driving to Phoenix fro Ulysses, spending the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico and stay with Sandoval’s family overnight.
KidWind was started by sixth grade science teacher Michael Arquin in Minnesota when he was teaching his students about sustainability and renewable energy.
“I feel like it’s important people know that these kids make a difference, give them a chance,” Sandoval said.
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