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On January 28, 2020, Region 9 Education Cooperative hosted a KidWind teacher training! The event brought together twelve teachers from the outlining districts (Capitan, Carrizozo, Corona, and Hondo) as well as local community members. What is KidWind? KidWind is a supplemental classroom curriculum that provides interactive activities that provide a method for students fourth grade through 12th grade to learn more about renewable energy while, at the same time, activating students' math, science, and problem-solving skills. KidWind is a great STEAM project to incorporate into any science or math curriculum.

As a result of the January 2020 R9 KidWind training, the first-ever New Mexico KidWind Challenge will be happening April 1, 2020, at the MesaLand Community College in Tucumcari, NM! The NM KidWind Challenge seeks to engage students in the opportunities and challenges of a wind-powered society. Student teams that participate in the Challenge construct a wind turbine that they test in a wind tunnel, document, and present the process by which they researched and constructed the turbine, understand the consequences of how we generate and consume energy, and engage in a variety of instant challenges to gauge their on-the-spot engineering and problem-solving skills.

Why is this important to our children and communities now? The growing wind energy industry in our region will be directly impacting our families for generations to come. The new wind projects in our area will provide jobs and revenue for years to come. It is important for our children to not only learn the benefits of renewable energy but to also realize the potential renewable energy may have on their future.

R9 member district Capitan Middle School will be taking three middle school students to attend the April 1, 2020, NM KidWind Challenge! Capitan Middle Schools student Conner O’Doherty states “ He is super excited to build his wind turbine blades and can’t wait to go to Tucumcari for the competition!”