Science Education Standards:

Short Description: In this activity, students are presented with a straightforward, but surprisingly complex task: create a wind-powered machine that will produce the maximum power output possible. Students can approach the problem from a number of different ways: some will want to lift a small weight very quickly, others will want to move a larger weight a bit more slowly. The distance in both cases will be fixed at the height of a hypothetical Mars sample return aircraft. Note: This is a 61 page PDF.