Board # 53: Development of an Educational Wind Turbine Troubleshooting and Safety Simulator

This project is developing a web-based, interactive 3D simulator for community college wind energy technician training programs. Directly contributing to the current project are two previous wind energy projects: “Wind Tech TV,” a 2010 NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project that compiled a library of online training materials for wind turbine technician training, and “Mixed Reality Simulators for Wind Energy Education,” a U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) project that produced a series of simulators for wind energy educators and students to provide hands-on experiences and promote critical thinking. The new simulator is designed to teach troubleshooting and safety strategies, promote critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and enhance the transfer of knowledge from classrooms to real-world situations. Learner immersion in a simulated environment and progression through numerous troubleshooting scenarios is expected to provide a better-prepared and more skilled workforce for the wind energy industry. Multiple community colleges, a wind energy company, two NSF ATE Centers, and a university research center comprise the multidisciplinary team working on this project. Community colleges are leading the curriculum and educational module design and implementation, industry collaborators are advising on needed skills and recommended activities, and the university research center is developing the software. Data from implementation in one community college so far show a 10% score increase for students using the simulator compared to traditional instruction alone.