Kate Fanelli

"Harnessing Wind, Harnessing Power: Lessons from Africa" is the winning project created by Fanelli for students at the Beacon Day Treatment Center, where students have severe emotional impairments. Students will explore alternative energy, the physics of machines, mathematical applications, and socio-political influences on technological progress by reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a memoir by William Kamkwamba. In the book, Kamkwamba is forced out of school in Malawi and into poverty at a young age but taught himself how to build a windmill from junkyard pieces. After reading the book, students will work with wind kits, build models, install a windmill to power equipment in the classroom, and learn about poverty. They will also create functioning machines, manuals on how windmills work, and service learning projects for others to benefit from their learning. Fanelli, who lives in Canton, hopes that through the project students will find relevance and parallels to their own lives from a person who also experienced many extreme struggles in life.