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Bite-Size Science With André and Lexi: Wind Energy--How to Build an Anemometer

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      (Describer) Craft supplies appear.

      (instructor) To make your anemometer, you'll need: five small paper cups, two straws, a hole punch, a crayon in your favorite color, a pencil with a good eraser, as well as a separate sharpened pencil, and a pushpin.

      (Describer) Lexi demonstrates.

      First, take one of your paper cups and punch four holes just below the rim. Space the holes out equally around the cup so two pairs of holes are opposite each other.

      (Describer) Lexi punches holes.

      Next, take your two straws and thread them through the holes in the cup so they crisscross, making a plus sign or an X.

      (Describer) Lexi shows the X and spins the cup in her hand.

      Flip that cup upside down on a table, and poke a hole in the center of the bottom of the cup with your sharpened pencil. We'll set this cup aside for now and move on to the other four cups.

      (Describer) Lexi punches a hole.

      Choose one of them, and use your crayon to draw a picture or pattern. A simple circle is fine, but feel free to be as artistic as you'd like. Draw on the side or bottom of the cup so you can easily tell it apart from the other three cups.

      (Describer) Lexi draws two circles.

      Next, use your hole punch to punch two holes about one inch apart in the middle of the side of each of the four cups.

      (Describer) Lexi punches holes in each cup, then sets each one aside.

      Be sure not to punch holes through your artwork though. Now it's time to connect everything together. Grab the first cup you made with the straws in it. Push the end of the straws through the two holes in the other four cups. This is very important: Make sure all your cups face the same direction.

      (Describer) The four cups face perpendicular to the center cup.

      If any of your cups are having a hard time staying put on the straw, you can use a little piece of tape to hold it in place. We're almost done. Take your unsharpened pencil with a good eraser, and push the eraser end through the hole you made in the bottom of your center cup. Press your pushpin through the two straws where they crisscross, and secure it lightly in the pencil eraser. Don't push it in all the way, or the cups won't be able to spin.

      (Describer) The pushpin tops the straws and pencil.

      You're now ready to measure the wind. So let's test your anemometer to make sure it's working properly. Stand about one foot in front of a fan, but stand to the side of the fan so you don't block any wind. Hold your anemometer by the pencil handle, and reach it out so it's in front of the fan. Turn the fan on low, and make sure your anemometer spins.

      (Describer) The cups rotate around the pushpin.

      Remember the drawing you made on one of the cups? You're going to count how many times you see it go by as the anemometer spins. Set a timer to 15 seconds, and count the rotations the anemometer makes. To get the number of rotations per minute, multiply the number by four.

      (Describer) The fan continues to blow the anemometer.

      Refer to the additional documents for experiment ideas and ways to collect and display data.

      (Describer) Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

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      Now Playing As: English with English captions (change)

      But how do meteorologists measure wind speed? They use a device called an anemometer. Students learn how to build an anemometer to measure wind speed. Part of the "Bite-Size Science With André and Lexi" series.

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      Runtime: 3 minutes 9 seconds

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