The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

You live in a land where an adequate food supply in rural villages is only probable in the months right after the harvest. Even that is not true in a year in which drought destroys the crops almost completely. Your family is hungry. You are fourteen and have just been dismissed from school because your parents cannot pay the required school fees. The future looks very grim and death is not far away for many starving people. The government of Malawi is doing nothing. Is there anything that you can do to help your family and friends? If you are William Kamkwamba, already self-taught about electrical circuits

and simple radios, you read everything you can get your hands on about electronics and energy and begin assembling the parts that could become a windmill, able to turn a small electric generator. The parts come from abandoned vehicles, a bicycle frame with a chain and two gears, scrap lumber, pipes, rope, and more. This young Malawian worked to apply critical thinking skills, problem

solving, imagination, creativity, and invention to craft a working windmill that could bring electricity to his family’s compound and beyond. It would provide people who could not afford candles or kerosene with light and, eventually, water for their farm. What do you suppose was his experience in doing such a thing? His neighbors called him crazy. People

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope. Harper Perennial, 2010 (paperback). 320 pages. $14.95.

ridiculed him for bringing home what appeared to be trash from salvage yards, one of which was across the road from the school he could no longer attend. He was working on this at a time of desperation in his community, which made his work appear even more fruitless. On top of that, he did not really know if the generator would work, if the tower would stand, or if the bicycle chain and hub could take the strain of the wind turning the handmade plastic and metal blades. But William was determined and, after many adaptations, his fi rst windmill did work and did not topple. News of his “electric wind” spread and gained him substantial attention and opportunities for further schooling in the following years. Often in schools we create fabricated challenges to inspire students to invest themselves fully in a study

or activity. But here is a story of a boy who helped to save his family from starvation and probable death. It is inspirational and will undoubtedly affect students. Keep in mind that the book is not just a how-to tale of an invented windmill. Much of the story is about life in rural and impoverished Malawi and about William Kamkwamba’s extended family and the challenges they face. The story can serve to broaden student concepts of the world and cultures and cause students to refl ect on their own resources and abilities. This is a profoundly important book to share with

older elementary students. You can see interviews with William Kamkwamba on the Daily Show and his talk on TED.

SYNERGY LEARNING INTERNATIONAL, INC.

PO Box 60, Brattleboro, VT 05302 Connect ™ Volume 24 • Issue 3 January • February 2011 Innovations in K–8 Science, Math, and Technology