High School Students Get Hands-On Training In Windmill Engineering At OU

If there's one thing Oklahoma will never have a shortage of its wind. Friday, high school students went to OU to learn how they can use wind to make a living.

Grove High School Senior Andrew Wallace feels most at home in the laboratory.

"Oh yeah. I love to learn anything I can. Especially hands-on stuff is what I really like,” said Wallace.

And the hands-on stuff is what Engineering days at OU is all about. In this case, showing students how windmills generate electricity by showing them how to build a windmill.

"Yeah, we see them, you know, in Oklahoma landscape it's common to see them everywhere. And we often talk about how does the wind capture them and move them,” said Dr. Keith Strevett, OU Civil Engineering Professor.

Norman High School Junior Willow Arana is the type of student OU hopes to keep excited about engineering. There simply aren't enough young women getting into the field.

"We're more restricted in what we can do just by society standards. And I think that that's why a lot of girls are less motivated,” said Arana.

"It's no longer the boys and the mechanics working on the cars. It's everyday life. We're talking to one of the girls about the pressure in her tires. It's everyday life that we got to make connections to,” said Dr. Strevett.

Those connections, organizers say, will keep the states brightest students in Oklahoma where we need them most.

Every weekend high school students interested in Engineering will go to OU for hands-on learning.