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One Wind Farm, Two Explanations

Compare two original articles about wind farms, analyzing how each author's evidence and explanations shape the same topic.

Grade 7ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRI.7.9

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Single worksheet
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1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
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Details

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

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare how two authors emphasize different evidence about wind farms.
Students analyze how shared facts serve different purposes in informational explanations.
Students support comparisons with specific evidence from both articles.

How to use

Read both articles before answering. Have students mark shared facts, then explain how each author uses those facts for a different purpose.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RI.7.9

Analyze how authors writing on the same topic shape it differently by stressing different evidence or reading the facts differently.

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Name Date

One Wind Farm, Two Explanations

Compare how two authors select and interpret technical information.

Read the articles

These articles explain the same technology through different lenses. Paragraph numbering restarts in Text B.

Text A: Following the Energy

1From a distance, a wind farm can look like a collection of enormous fans. But a fan uses electricity to move air, while a wind turbine captures energy from moving air to generate electricity. Understanding that reversal means looking beyond the turning blades. The visible motion is only the beginning of a chain of changes that continues inside the machine and along electrical cables.

2A turbine blade has a carefully shaped surface. As wind passes over it, aerodynamic forces help turn the rotor, the assembly that includes the blades and hub. The rotor turns a shaft connected to equipment inside the housing behind the blades. In many turbines, a gearbox increases the rotational speed used by the generator. Other designs connect the rotor to a generator without a gearbox. Either arrangement links the blades’ movement to electricity generation.

3Inside the generator, motion between magnets and coils of wire produces electric current. The machine does not create energy from nothing: it converts some of the wind’s energy into electrical energy. Equipment then prepares that electricity for delivery. Transformers change voltage, allowing electricity to travel through the collection system and onward toward the wider electrical grid. The tower is therefore part of a route, not the endpoint.

4Even the empty-looking spaces between turbines belong in this explanation. Air leaving a turbine has less energy available for turbines behind it. That disturbed region is called a wake. Leaving suitable distances between machines can reduce wake effects. A wind farm’s arrangement therefore reveals something important about the energy source: extracting energy changes the air that continues across the site.

5Wind does not arrive at a constant speed. Sensors and controls adjust blade angles, and turbines may stop when conditions fall outside their operating limits. These responses show that electricity generation depends on matching a machine to moving air. Following the energy through blades, shafts, generators, and cables makes a distant row of towers readable as a connected physical process.

Text B: Making a Wind Farm Work Together

1A photograph of a wind farm usually centers on the towers. An operator must pay attention to relationships that a photograph cannot show: the changing wind, the condition of individual machines, and the electricity needed beyond the site. Knowing how one turbine generates electricity is necessary, but it does not fully explain how a wind farm functions. The larger challenge is coordinating many machines within changing conditions.

2Each turbine converts some of the wind’s energy into electrical energy. Wind turns its rotor, and that motion drives a generator. Cables carry the electricity away, while transformers change voltage for transmission. These steps establish what the equipment can do. Operators also need to know when equipment can do it, how much output to expect, and whether a machine needs attention before a problem grows.

3Spacing illustrates why machines cannot be considered separately. A turbine leaves a wake containing slower, disturbed air. A turbine behind it may therefore produce less electricity than it would in undisturbed wind. Planners study wind patterns and possible layouts rather than simply fitting the greatest number of towers into an area. Space between turbines is not automatically wasted space; it can help neighboring machines work more effectively together.

4Weather creates another coordination task. Forecasts help operators estimate how much electricity the farm may supply. Controls adjust blade angles, and turbines can stop when conditions exceed operating limits. Because wind output changes, the wider electrical system must balance it with other resources, such as other generators, storage, or changes in electricity use. Forecasts are useful, but they do not turn variable wind into a steady fuel supply.

5Maintenance adds a different schedule to the same system. Technicians inspect equipment and repair worn parts, sometimes taking a turbine out of service. Planning that work involves weather, worker safety, and expected production. A stopped turbine in a photograph might reflect a maintenance decision rather than a broken machine. To understand the whole farm, readers must look beyond visible motion and ask how information guides decisions across the site.

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