Middle school hosts STEM competition, Topsham, Maine [Video]

Middle school students were tasked with building wind turbines in class for the STEM competition to see whose invention could generate the most power.

TOPSHAM, Maine — Any time a Maine middle school student is able to learn outside of the classroom, they’ll probably say it was a good day.

Avery Elliott and Haven Ruff, both eighth graders at Mt. Ararat Middle School, spent most of Wednesday working on a project they’ve been perfecting all month long.

The Topsham-based school hosted the Maine Middle School KidWind Challenge — which gives kids a hands-on learning experience with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics ( STEM) education. Student teams design, build, and test small-scale wind turbines all over the country and the world.

“It took a while to figure out what design we wanted and how it was going to work, to be able to spin,” Ruff said during Wednesday’s testing.

“And last night we figured out our generator wouldn’t spin and that was the problem,” Elliot added.

Students from Mt. Ararat, Freeport, and …