Region 4 Update Dec. 2020/Jan. 2021

Region 4 Update | December 2020/January 2021

Dec 11, 2020
editor

By Debbie Gordon, Region 4 Director

Hello Region 4!

I hope that you have all had a peaceful Thanksgiving break. I can’t believe it is already December. There have been many goings on in the region including the California Science Education Conference in October. It was certainly a lot different than being in person, but still wonderful to see so many of you turn out to learn and collaborate virtually. That made me think about things that students have been used to doing and now have to do differently.

One is the science fair. In most counties that will mean a virtual event. I’m hoping students can work at home with their families to explore a science question or engineering problem that they are curious about and that they continue to submit projects for their district and county events.

Another yearly event is KidWind. For the last 15 years KidWind has been focused on teaching the world about renewable energy. We have helped thousands of educators bring wind and solar power to life in the classroom, guided by its award winning curriculum, its unique tools and kits, and a deep passion for the subject matter.

For the KidWind Regional Planning Team - Coachella Valley, the KidWind is a yearly engineering project in which students design, build, test, and optimize small-scale wind turbines to compete with schools all over the Coachella Valley and beyond. Each regional competition in the US has a select group of top competitors that go to the Nationals competition which is held in a different state each year following the American Wind Energy Association annual conference. Students learn technical skills, dive deep into NGSS concepts, as well as other core content areas, and build soft-skills throughout the project in order to compete as a team.