Everyone could feel the excitement as we began to test our windmill prototypes! In what has become a yearly tradition, the kindergarten and fifth graders teamed up for an engineering project to build working windmills. Each year, we instructors give fewer and fewer guidelines and are amazed by the creativity our students possess. The students are given simple materials and access to technology to research windmill designs. Step 1 is drawing the ideas and testing materials to see which work best. Once students have a working model, the windmills are tested first to see if they catch the wind, and then to see how much wind they catch by how much weight they can lift! For some groups, it was back to the drawing board to change or enhance their ideas. Groups worked cooperatively to be sure that every windmill was successful. This year’s project was further enhanced by weekly science collaborations between the grades. Another engineering project will be coming our way soon!