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More than 550 students from the United States, Estonia, Taiwan, and Thailand descended on the University of Wisconsin-Madison last month for the 2026 World KidWind Challenge — and for KidWind founder Michael Arquin, the event was proof of something he’s believed since 2009: give kids a wind turbine to build and they will find a way to get there.
“Despite my best attempts to kill it, it keeps going,” Arquin said with a laugh during this recent Tech & Learning podcast conversation.
The 2026 World KidWind Challenge drew 125 teams of 4th–12th graders competing across wind turbine and solar home design categories. Teams were scored on four dimensions: turbine or solar home performance, a presentation before a panel of judges, an “Instant Challenge” requiring on-the-spot problem solving, and a timed Knowledge Test on clean energy concepts.
The structure is deliberate, Arquin says, because clean energy careers are not only for engineers. “There are lots of careers in the energy space that are non-STEM related,” he says. “We’re trying to tell kids: yeah, you might like the engineering side, but you might like the design part, or the communication side.”
For Morgan Berkgren, a physics teacher from Oakley, Kansas, that message landed years ago. Berkgren, who attended graduate school for biology before being handed a physics class in a small Western Kansas district, discovered KidWind around 2018 and built what became one of the program’s most celebrated multi-team programs.
This year she brought four teams to Madison — one middle school squad, the Twisted Sisters, and three high school teams, Power Breeze, Spirit Winds, and Sea Breeze — all competing in the open home-built generator division for the first time. “I looked at them and I’m like, 'Dude, I went to school for biology,'” Berkgren says. “And they’re like, 'Yeah, Ms. Berkgren, but we want to go to the next level.'”
Teachers and coaches interested in bringing KidWind into their classrooms can get started at kidwind.org. KidWind offers funded virtual workshops and will ship a starter kit directly to educators. Local and regional challenges run throughout the school year, with top teams qualifying for the World KidWind Challenge each spring.
Arquin’s advice for anyone on the fence: “Just start. You’re going to learn a lot along the way — and so will your students.”
