JAMESTOWN (AP) - Kindergarten to senior high students from Manitoba, Minnesota and North Dakota will learn about wind energy in school this fall.

Michael Arquin, director of the KidWind Project, presented a two-day workshop for 27 teachers this week at Jamestown College. Arquin said his goal is to introduce as many people as possible to wind power through science projects that are exciting, simple and teach basic science principles.

"Eighty percent of teachers who come end up doing something on wind energy in the classroom," he said.

At his workshop, Arquin presented a brief background on wind energy, then started the teachers on the fun part of the seminar - easy-to-construct, low-cost, working wind turbines. The turbines were around 3 feet high and built from PVC pipe and a few purchased parts. They cost around $15 to make. When completed, they are placed in front of a fan and hooked up to a voltmeter to measure their energy output.

Linda McPherson, who teaches science in St. Andrews, Manitoba, said she will use the turbine project when she presents a unit on renewable energy.

"Hands-on is always the best," she said.

Carrie Nichols, who teaches science in Carrington, said she also will use the turbine project in her classes.

"Eighth- and ninth-graders - they'll love this," she said.

Not all the participants were science teachers. Irene Van Eeckhout teaches language arts at West Fargo High School.

"We do a research paper with the science department each year," she said. "They always want to do dread diseases, and I've read all the papers I want to on dread disease. I'm going to suggest this project."

Eric Hewitt, who teaches life science in Carrington, said the turbine project wasn't too complicated to do in class and will fit into his curriculum when the students read about renewable resources.

"It's nice to get out of the book sometimes," he said.

Pat Fegley, a school counselor in Sawyer, said the seminar will be useful in her work as well.

"I'm planning to use it to talk about careers in wind energy in North Dakota," she said.

Participants in the workshop also toured the wind farm in the Edgeley-Kulm area.

Arquin, who taught school for 10 years, developed the KidWind Project on his own because of his personal interest in wind energy. "I did it as a teacher, and this is an outgrowth of that," he said.

Arquin gave his first workshop in 2004, and has presented the KidWind Project to about 1,500 teachers across the country.

(On the Web: www.kidwind.org.)