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Wind Farms: From Explanation to Screen

Compare an original wind-farm article with a video storyboard, analyzing how words, animation, camera choices, and sound portray the subject.

Grade 7ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRI.7.7

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 7
Subject: ELA
Question types: Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare how an article and a video storyboard portray wind farms and electricity generation.
Students analyze how visual and audio choices emphasize information or shape impressions.
Students support comparisons of media with specific evidence from both versions.

How to use

Have students read the article and the complete video storyboard; no external video is needed. Ask them to distinguish what a production choice helps explain from what it merely makes viewers feel.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RI.7.7

Compare a text with its audio, video, or multimedia version, analyzing how each medium portrays the subject.

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Name Date

Wind Farms: From Explanation to Screen

Compare how an article and a video plan explain wind-generated electricity.

Read both versions

Read the article and the planned video version. Bracketed descriptions in the storyboard tell you exactly what viewers would see and hear. Base your comparisons only on these materials.

Electricity from Moving Air

1From a distance, a wind farm can look like a group of enormous fans. But the machines are doing the reverse of a household fan’s job. A fan uses electricity to move air; a wind turbine captures energy from moving air to generate electricity. The turning blades are only the visible beginning of a longer process.

2Wind flowing over a turbine’s specially shaped blades creates forces that turn the rotor, the assembly that includes the blades and their central hub. The rotor drives machinery connected to a generator inside the housing near the top of the tower. In many turbines, a gearbox increases the rotation speed before it reaches the generator. Other designs connect the rotor more directly to the generator.

3Inside the generator, motion between magnets and coils of wire produces electric current. Cables carry electricity down the tower. Equipment adjusts its voltage so that it can travel through the electrical system. Lines from individual turbines connect the wind farm to the larger network that delivers electricity to users. Electricity does not jump straight from a blade to a nearby home.

4Wind farms are also planned around moving air. As a turbine captures energy, it leaves slower, disturbed air behind it. Designers space turbines to reduce the effect of this disturbed air on other turbines. Access roads allow maintenance crews to reach the towers. The arrangement is therefore more than a pattern chosen to look orderly from above.

5A turbine’s output changes as wind conditions change. If winds are too weak, the turbine may produce no electricity; in very strong winds, controls may stop it to protect the equipment. Operating an electrical network involves balancing changing electricity supplies with changing demand. Understanding a wind farm means looking beyond spinning blades to the machinery, layout, and wider system that make those blades useful.

Video Storyboard: Following the Energy

1Scene 1 — Opening view. [A low camera looks up at a turbine against the sky. Bright instrumental music rises as the blades turn. The title appears.] Narrator: “Moving air carries energy. A wind turbine captures some of that energy and uses it to generate electricity.” The camera moves toward the housing at the top of the tower.

2Scene 2 — Inside the machine. [The outer housing fades away in an animation. Labels identify the rotor, gearbox, and generator. The rotor turns slowly while the shaft beyond the gearbox turns faster. The music becomes quieter.] Narrator: “This example uses a gearbox to increase rotation speed. Some turbine designs work without one.” The animation pauses with all three labels visible.

3Scene 3 — A closer look. [The generator fills the screen. Animated magnets move past coils of wire. An arrow labeled “electric current” appears beside a wire. The camera then follows a highlighted cable down the tower to electrical equipment.] Narrator: “The generator converts motion into electrical energy. Equipment prepares the electricity for its journey through the network.” [A simple map traces the connection from the wind farm to the electrical network.]

4Scene 4 — Across the farm. [An overhead shot shows rows of turbines, open spaces, and access roads. Gentle music returns. The camera glides along a road before cutting to blades turning against the sky.] Narrator: “Individual turbines work together as part of a wind farm.” No arrows show air moving between the turbines, and no explanation of the spaces between them is given.

5Scene 5 — Changing conditions. [A split screen shows one turbine turning and another standing still. The music fades out.] Narrator: “Output changes with wind conditions. Turbines may stop when wind is too weak or too strong. The electrical network must balance changing supplies and demand.” [The final frame holds both turbines on screen beside the words “One part of a larger system.”]

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