Seneca Valley students head to KidWind world championships
Student teams from Haine Elementary and Haine Middle schools have earned invitations to the KidWind World Championship, May 17 through 20 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The competition is the culminating event of the KidWind Challenge, a hands-on design competition that encourages students to explore the power and promise of clean energy through building and testing small-scale wind turbines and solar structures.
Several Seneca Valley KidWind teams recently competed at the state KidWind championships, held at Penn State University. Two Seneca Valley teams earned tickets to the prestigious world finals.
The solar team from Haine Elementary School, “Einstein Extraordinaires,” designed a solar environment that contained a solar laboratory, gardens and shed. At Penn State, the team won the Solar Spirit Award. The team consists of Kevin Husband, Maddox Pindroh, Brayden Hauck, Garrett Schiela and Ronav Mistri.
The team from Haine Middle School, “Airborne Military Ducks,” won the second-place award. After designing and testing a variety of different gear ratios and blade designs, the team created a turbine with four gears and six identical blades made of corrugated plastic. The team consists of Ihsan Sirazee, Auggy Semblante, Jesse Wabiszewski and Everett Williamson.
Both teams are coached by fourth-grade teacher Linda Weismann and gifted support teacher Jeremiah Friday.
