How KidWind Turns Clean Energy into a Classroom Without Walls

Kevin Hogan: Okay. Hello, and, uh, welcome to the latest episode of Tech and Learning Conversations. I'm Kevin Hogan and I'm glad you found us. Now, what if the best assessment in education looked nothing like a test? What if it looked like a student built wind turbine spinning in a competition hall with a kid from Oakley, Kansas, explaining its blade geometry to a judge from Taiwan? Well, that's the world of kidwind. And on today's episode, we sit down with two people who know it best. Michael Arquin is the founder of KidWind. He started it in 2009, and they just wrapped up their 2026 World Challenge at the University of Madison, Wisconsin. They had more than 550 students from four different countries. Also with me today, Morgan Berkrin. She's a longtime Kidwin coach out of Oakleigh, Kansas, who built her program from scratch as a biology major, teaching physics, no less. And this year brought four teams to Worlds, all competing in the Home Built Generator division for the first time. So we get to talk about what clean energy education really means, why the Instant Challenge might be the most important part of the competition, and what it looks like when a small town in western Kansas builds relationships with schools in Taiwan. So click through and listen for the conversation. Okay, Michael, Morgan, thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. And, uh, congratulations, uh, with the success of the recent event.

Michael Arquin: Thank you very much. Been a lot of fun.

Morgan Berkrin: Thank you.

Kevin Hogan: And Michael, maybe we'll start with you. Talk a little bit about your, um, experiences with the event. I know it's been, uh, going for a few years now, 2009. Um, what have you seen from this year's event that maybe you didn't anticipate way back when, when, when you were starting it off? Have you seen this evolution, which I assume has been something of a real. That makes you proud?

Michael Arquin: Uh, yeah, I mean, uh, it's definitely. I, I have a line. Um, despite my best attempts, uh, to kill it, it keeps going. So it must be interesting for lots of people. And, uh, to me, the biggest things that really stand out is, um, the amazing number of coaches and everybody who's involved in bringing kids there. Like, we put it out there and people just show up, they figure out a way to get there, they raise money, they bring these amazing kids who I have. My favorite part of it is walking around talking to the students and just the scale of it, it just blows my mind every day. And then the other side I'm really excited about is the international expansion has been just absolutely crazy with teams from Taiwan and Estonia And Mexico. So both those things amazing in my opinion.

Kevin Hogan: Yeah, that's, that's, that's fantastic. Morgan, maybe you could talk a little bit about how you first came upon the event and, and uh, how you've made it to where you can participate.

Morgan Berkrin: So I started back in, I think it was 2018 or 2019, um, and it was just our regional challenge with Kansas Energy. I, um, was a physics teacher. I was brought to Oakley Kansas. Um, and I didn't go to school for physics. I went to school for biology. So it's something you learn in western Kansas is you just kind of go with what they give you, um, because you have to fill the holes in rural schools. Hold on. Um, and so when I took this over, I needed something to kind of fill physics and that's when we started going to that regional challenge for Kid Wind. I don't even think we produced a jewel for like the first two years. They were using direct drives, um, the kids, I let it be full hands on them and I was just there for questions. I didn't really assist a whole heck of a lot. I just was seeing where their innovation took them and, and then it was right around Covid time, I think 2020. I had a team go to regionals. They produce 14 jewels because they got a drive train. And then we went to state and they went from, hold on, they went from not producing anything to all of a sudden producing like I think 40 jewels in a span of 30 seconds or something like that. And they just like mind blown and it was some senior boys. And so at that point we had one state and we were going to Worlds and it turned into what it is now at Oakley is instead of, of just taking one team to world, we went from one to two to three and then, then four this year. And it's kind of a culture shift in our school and seeing the innovation of where kids have taken it versus when uh, we started it in 2018 is just mind blowing.

Kevin Hogan: Yeah, yeah, really. It caught my eye through the press release and just looking at seems like just a culmination of so many great things from over the years that we've been covering at tech and learning. I mean we had a couple year phase of uh, the maker space.

Morgan Berkrin: Right.

Kevin Hogan: And maker labs and before that, I mean I just Even growing up, you mean just there's elements of the classic science fair that's involved, but at the same time there seems to be a lot of what I think. And now we made it almost five minutes before I said AI, but I'M going to say it. Um, this seems to me like it could be a true future assessment, best practice, um, that districts and schools can use this sort of thing, um, to show real student engagement and real student learning. Does that resonate with both of you?

Morgan Berkrin: Yes. And I think this is like a drive home, like, getting the kids. And this is what I love that Michael built. This is getting the kids out of the classroom and taking what knowledge they can get from the classroom. Yeah, that's great. You can take a test all day long. But them being in their element of, uh. Yes. Competing is a nice portion of it because it keeps the kids involved and it gives a sort of sense of like, okay, I'm doing this for a purpose because I'm competing against other kids. But then they start to realize, oh, my gosh, this is real life. This is stuff. When we start running with the energy conferences there, they see people in their careers doing this and going from. Instead of just a standard test, they're applying their knowledge and building things and able to talk about it. And that's what I love about this competition is, yes, they can build something all day long, but they're also getting a piece of where they're having to socialize and present this in front of a board of people. So it is basically a sales pitch of, uh, why their thing is the way it is. And so they're getting not just science, not just physics, they're getting math, they're getting some social studies perspectives because they're getting history, they're getting English by writing all of these things that they have to put in a presentation and present to people. And then they're building relationships with, uh, at the international piece now, because we were talking with some Taiwan teams. Could I have said that three years ago? No, I couldn't have. Uh, we live in Oakley, Kansas, and we're building relationships with people overseas. And that's just crazy for these kids.

Kevin Hogan: Yeah. Michael, your thoughts?

Michael Arquin: I would say, um, everything Morgan said and more, um, there's also another dimension that we very much work on is, um, in the United States, there is a lot of new technologies like wind and solar are going into rural communities. And the more we can make those communities educated about the impacts of those things and be a local voice as opposed to somebody coming from out of town. We're very engaged with what we call public acceptance. We want to make them smarter about this tech. Yeah, there are going to be challenges, but, yeah, there's going to be benefits. Let's talk about that. And the kids Become um, amazing spokespeople for this. I've seen students do this where they go to local, uh, permitting meetings as students and talk to the community about like yeah, we realize that might be a challenge but there's the benefits to that as well. So these students are highly engaged. They tend to come back year after year. There is the competitive element, but I'm much more about the collaboration. Uh, side. We have a special award at the Kinwin Challenge called the Spirit of Kinmen. It's like uh, uh, gracious, uh, combat basically like help your neighbors out and things like that. And the students do it to a T. It's fairly amazing to watch.

Kevin Hogan: Michael, how would you recommend for our readers, our listeners? Uh, well, uh, besides just going to your event itself, are there ways or suggestions you would have for them to kind of replicate or kind of do many, many versions of this in their districts or in their schools?

Michael Arquin: Yeah, I mean a lot of this actually starts from uh, doing it in your classroom with your students having like a classroom based, whether it be solar or wind challenge. We, we do a lot of virtual uh, workshops in, in wherever we have funding in person trainings. We bring this up and where it really starts is at that like level. Like Morgan had entered classroom with her students doing this and then hey, maybe that was super fun. Maybe they visited an in person competition and said okay, we're going to go to that next year and we, we strongly believe in this like multi years process to kind of get to it. But the key is just you know, I'm a big believer, like start it, you're going to Morgan's learned a lot over the years. I've learned a lot. I mean if you saw the first Kidwood Challenge, it would have been quite a thing. But you know, things have evolved. But you know a lot of teachers start in classrooms. What I would say for a teacher interested, get on our website, register and you're going to see lots of like virtual trainings that are funded where we'll send you a box, show you how to do it and then you know, help you get through that process a little bit too.

Kevin Hogan: For sure, yeah. Now Morgan, is this considered uh, an extracurricular? Is it tied into your curriculum? A little bit of both. Talk about how you're able to intertwine the two.

Morgan Berkrin: So actually, and it's kind of crazy, I started it just as a physics class thing and then I had kids be like, hey, um, we're super, super excited and want to do this and how can we do this at a Younger level. And so I actually started it as my eighth graders. Um, and then we started in the classroom. And like Michael was saying, starting at the classroom level and then building from there, we started in the classroom. I build a bunch of teams off of that and we have an in house competition to kind of pick who goes to regionals and then whoever makes it out of regionals goes to state and we start that at eighth grade. So then when they come into high school, they can join our stem, Science, Technology, engineering, math club and they join that STEM club and they all get their teams picked off of, based off of how I know them from the previous years. And we build our turbines off of that. So I have a middle school program for just eighth graders and a high school program for freshmen through seniors. And it's completely out in the physics classroom now. It is strictly extracurricular.

Michael Arquin: I think the problem with Morgan's teams, they want to do too much. You probably can't fit it in your business class. Your kids are like, amazing. I think Morgan, you were the Sea Breeze team, right? You had this.

Morgan Berkrin: Oh my gosh.

Michael Arquin: That team had to like completely rebuild their turbine on site because things were not working and it was very complicated. We have divisions where kids, uh, called the home built division. They make their own generators, um, and stuff like that too. So it's like they had to do

Kevin Hogan: a lot of work. Well, it's interesting that you mentioned STEM and again the coverage here at Tech and Learning. We're big STEM proponents over the years and wrote about kind of the, the, the fad of stem, I guess I would call it. Right. Uh, and also look at robotics clubs and math clubs too. And I mean, just from my perspective of covering all these things, I love all those things. I'm a self professed, uh, nerd when it comes to that. But sometimes those labels kind of put things into their own particular segments. Just reading about this event, I didn't get that sense of either. Like, it's not like an esports team or robotics team. I mean this just seems like kids coming together. Is that an accurate.

Michael Arquin: It is very much intentional. I'm a big believer in the clean energy space that we tend to project in the energy space alone. That energy is a very like STEM or math career driven space. And that, yes, there's a component of that, like 20% of it. There are lots of other careers in the energy space that are non STEM related. And that industry is going through an aging process. So we're trying to be very open with kids. Like, yeah, you Might like the engineering side of this, but you might like the design part of this or you might like this other element. So it's very intentional how we structure the rules and the rubrics. Yeah, there's some performance based stuff, but as Morgan said, there's presentation, there's collaboration, all kinds of other elements to sort of augment a lot of those other skills too.

Kevin Hogan: For sure. Is that instant challenge aspect that, that you have.

Michael Arquin: There's, that there's knowledge tests, there's um, you know, there. And then there's a lot of like collaborative elements too. So yeah, it's definitely like, yeah, it's stem, but we're trying to teach kids. It's a broad uh, thing going on here in this space.

Kevin Hogan: So Michael, let me ask again. Maybe some of the history of it since 2009. It certainly seems like an aspirational event, but I would only assume that maybe some of the kids now you've been able to track to see they've had successes or maybe had followed along as inspired by this path. Can you talk about some of your success stories?

Michael Arquin: Yeah, I would say my most favorite thing is, um, we've been gone for quite a long time. And then a group of kids who did pretty well at kidwind Challenges, they wanted to continue their work in college. And then we set up a program called Kidwin Fellows. So these are students who have graduated, now they're in college and now they come back and go into schools or they'll zoom with a teacher. And they were like champions at the Kidwin level. And they're very engaged and making videos teaching kids about advanced top uh, concepts. And there's nothing more exciting than like nobody wants to hear from a 56 year old white guy, but like a 22 year old cool kid who was a winner. Yeah, like they're amazing. So that has been a really very uh, exciting. And then we have, we don't have enough money to do like a deep dive and like kids who go nursery. But we have a lot of anecdotal stories of kids who've gotten into aspects of this industry. And there's a whole nother. Um, there's a partner, uh, there's a, called the Collegiate Wind challenge. This is 12 universities for a number of years before the new administration, we would do the kidwind Worlds with the college kids and there'd be a lot of overlap between those two competitions. So the kids would see like, oh, at uh, University of Penn State, there's amazing like aerodynamics, uh, program in wind. I'm going to go there. So there was all this work doing that too. So there's quite a bit of that going on as well too.

Kevin Hogan: Amazing. Now, Morgan, it sounds like you've made some tremendous strides just in, in the past couple years. What are some of the things on your wish list? Where would you like to see your, your individual program besides winning Kid Win, I guess every year. Um, in terms of expansion or maybe it doesn't need to be expanded. What are your hopes over the next few months?

Morgan Berkrin: Well, we didn't win this year, but it. And it's not. I looked at this year as actually a bigger win and aspect because for the first time I like, I walked into and I'm sitting there and I'm looking around and I'm like, the innovation is just insane. How they went just from what last year was to this year and how this program has just grown in general is mind boggling to me. And the reason why I said it's because it's, it's all student driven. So your limit is where the student wants to stop. And so as long. And I think with my program and it kind of bites, but, uh, we are moving away from Oakley. Um, just some family stuff and just different choices with where my career is going. Um, I really want to see Oakley. Yes. Continue this. But this year we took a whole nother level to it and that all my teams, we went either open home built generator. Um, and that was. That was it. There was no kid wind generator because there's three divisions. And so the kids wanted to push the mold this year just because it was my last year. And they're like, we want to see what it looks like so we can build to that next level. And, and I think that's the direction I want to see the program go is them just to continue to push it outside of its barriers. I looked at them this year and they were like telling me Seabreeze that Michael mentioned. They were like, we're going to build our own generator. And I looked at them, I'm like, bro, that's. No, that is not Morgan Berkman. I'm like, dude, I went to school before biology. I can do things with my hands. Like, I've got that down. We've got the. I'm like, we've got the Kidwin generator down. They're like, yeah, Ms. Berkin, but we want to, we want to go to the next level. And I'm like, okay, and I'm all for you doing that, but like, I am, um, I am 110% out of the knowledge on this and that.

Kevin Hogan: Lifelong learning, Morgan. Lifelong learning.

Morgan Berkrin: And that was. I got to worlds with my husband and I looked at him and I'm like, yeah, I think I'm a fish out of water on this, Jason. I feel like I need to do some learning. And he goes, I would agree. And so we met a team from Rhode island who got the Spirit of the Wind award just for how much they were just, they were above and beyond amazing. Helping my girls and everything. And like seeing them in that environment, yes. They may not have produced anything but their perseverance and just pushing through and saying, I don't care. I'm not going kidwind. I'm gonna learn how to do this.

Michael Arquin: Yeah.

Morgan Berkrin: And I, I loved seeing that and I love seeing that for girls too. That it's not saying it's a men driven environment, but it's like, it's, uh, that, that phrase, women in stem. I loved seeing my girls push it beyond what my program has ever done and going beyond the holds of what Oakley has ever done and said, regardless of what our outcome is, we're gonna do this. And so I want to see it continue to grow in the sense of allowing the students to drive where it goes. Because every step that I have taken or that I have done it has been 110% the students telling me what they want out of the experience. And I think that's why we've had so much success with it is because they're like, I want to learn xyz, but I want to accomplish abc. How can we get that done? And that's, I just, I wish that for my program in the future because our community and Oakley is amazing. They've supported everything these kids do. They love sending them off to worlds. And this year it was a lot more money, of course, because I had 14 kids going, not just, you know, a group of four. And so just having the constant community backing and having my kids drive where the program goes, I think that's the direction, uh, that Oakley needs to continue going.

Kevin Hogan: Fantastic, Michael, that must be music to your ears.

Michael Arquin: Uh, I, once again, we, we did the first kid win Nationals and we had to have any money and we said, I wonder who will show up. And the communities, like, they figured it out. And now, like, I, I have stories of, like a team from Darlington, Wisconsin, very small town that came back as champions. They were on the fire truck going down the middle of the road as, like a celebration. Everybody's out. Because the whole community kind of had to Chip in to help them attend these events. And the other thing about Worlds is, yeah, there's the competition, but we intentionally try to bring like this year on a college campus, a lot of our, our, uh, post event surveys show close to 50% of the kids maybe have never been on an airplane, maybe have never been on a large college campus. That alone is a win. Like, you know, hopefully they see something maybe like, wow, this is really cool. How do I go to the next level? Or this is amazing. So we're very focused on like all those other dimensions, to be honest with you.

Kevin Hogan: So it's.

Michael Arquin: And Morgan is a suit. Morgan's gonna die. She's. I saw her student. She's a superstar. Where are you gonna go, Morgan? What school is gonna get it? Get to have your amazing skill sets? I hope somewhere

Morgan Berkrin: I, I am going to Garden City High School. So kind of Stephanie, I, I go from a two way to a six.

Michael Arquin: A kind of like they're, they're lucky, uh, to have you. Amazing.

Kevin Hogan: Uh, as with many of my conversations, like, I, I would just want to, when I finish, send my kids to whatever district year I'm ready to move to Western Kansas. But, uh, thank you both for a really, uh, inspirational and enthusiastic conversation. Sometimes it seems an education these days, um, there's a lot of doom and gloom, but, uh, just listening to the details of what happened last week and what happens every year and Morgan, like in your classroom, uh, in the weeks and months that lead up to that penultimate event, um, I think gives our readers and our listeners hope and inspiration for the work that they're doing. That it's, it really is just a really terrific way, uh, to pursue a profession. So thank you both again. Appreciate it and I look forward to following all your successes.

Michael Arquin: Thank you very much.

Morgan Berkrin: Yep. Thank you.

Kevin Hogan: Thanks again to Michael and Morgan for a conversation that genuinely left me energized. All puns intended. If you're a teacher who's Never heard of Kidwind, head to kidwind.org, michael mentioned they'll send you a box, walk you through virtual trainings and help get you started. No physics degree required. And Morgan, congratulations. Garden City High School is getting something special. We'll be watching, uh, your continued success. So for tech and learning, I'm Kevin Hogan, and if you found this conversation useful, share it with a colleague, Leave us a review, and we'll see you next time.