First Flight students land top honors at NC Renewable Energy Challenge, invitation to 2025 World KidWind Challenge
- Corinne Saunders
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
The First Flight High School and First Flight Middle School contingent stands on a deck of the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese on Saturday, March 22, 2025, following the North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge. Dare County Schools Superintendent Steve Basnight is pictured far right on the back row. (Photo courtesy John McCord)
By Corinne Saunders
WANCHESE — First Flight Middle School and First Flight High School students earned top honors at this year’s North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge, which took place Saturday, March 22, at the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI), located at 850 NC-345 in Wanchese.
The students are now invited to compete in the 2025 World KidWind Challenge, an international renewable energy event, in May in Phoenix, Arizona.
A Wednesday, March 26, Dare County Schools press release announced the following results:
Water Turbine Contest – High School Division
1st place: Alex Sharp (First Flight High)
2nd place: Autumn Sailor, Aidan Tabolt, and Harry Lipchak (First Flight High team)
Wind Turbine Contest – Grades 4-8 Division
1st place: Adriana Daniels, Enzo Piacenza, Diego Reyes-Avila, and Heidi Wisecarver (First Flight Middle team)
Wind Turbine Contest – High School Division
1st place: Autumn Sailor, Aidan Tabolt, and Harry Lipchak (First Flight High team)
Autumn Sailor, Aidan Tabolt, Harry Lipchak and Alex Sharp (l-r) of First Flight High School win the Water Turbine Contest at the North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge at CSI in Wanchese on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (Photo courtesy Dare County Schools)
“Competitors from First Flight High and First Flight Middle earned a total of $900 in prize money and an invitation to represent North Carolina at the 2025 KidWind Challenge Worlds in Phoenix, Arizona, this May,” the release said. “The national event will bring together top student innovators from across the globe to showcase their renewable energy solutions and engineering skills.”
In the release, Dr. Duke Wallin, First Flight High School’s career development coordinator and co-coach, applauded the “incredible amount of effort” put forth by students.
“Winning at both the middle and high school levels reflects the strength of our STEM and Career & Technical Education [CTE] programs here in Dare County, and we are incredibly proud of their accomplishments,” Wallin added.
He coached the high school students alongside Mike Phelan, a computer science teacher, and Brian dePedro, a carpentry teacher. STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teacher Liz Gray, eighth-grade science teacher Tracey Deans and CTE Coordinator Ashley Basnight coached the middle school students, according to the release.
First Flight Middle School students win the Wind Turbine Contest at the North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge at CSI in Wanchese on Saturday, March 22, 2025. Adriana Daniels, STEM teacher Liz Gray, Enzo Piacenza, Heidi Wisecarver and Diego Reyes-Avila (l-r) are pictured. (Photo courtesy Dare County Schools)
This year’s contest
The North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge began in 2017 and has run every year except for two, which were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSI Associate Director for Education, Outreach & Communications John McCord said in a Thursday phone interview.
Seventeen teams representing six counties in North Carolina and one county in South Carolina competed in this year’s challenge, he said.
Generally, western North Carolina is well-represented in the event, but not this year. Following last September’s devastation caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene, “they’re dealing with rebuilding their schools, let alone being able to make a trip like this,” he said.
Contestants are judged on the effectiveness of the device they built for the competition, their interviews with judges and four “instant challenges” related to renewable energy that teams complete onsite, McCord said.
“First Flight students performed exceptionally well in their challenges and interviews, securing top placements in their respective divisions,” the Dare County Schools press release said.
The first- and second-place winners in each division receive cash prizes.
McCord shared the list of this year’s winners by division:
Grades 4-8 Wind
First Flight Middle School
Bulldogs (Weeksville Elementary School, Elizabeth City)
HS Wind
Narwhals of the Air (First Flight High School)
Pam Pack (Washington High School, Beaufort County)
Grades 4-8 Ocean
Prince of Tides (a family team from SC)
HS Ocean
Shells are Sharp (First Flight High School)
Narwhals of the Sea (First Flight High School)
Members of a First Flight High School team adjust their turbine during the North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge at CSI in Wanchese on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (Photo courtesy John McCord)
“First Flight High School really sort of sweeped [sic] a lot of the competition this year, but we had some great participation from other teams as well,” McCord said.
A Cape Hatteras Secondary School team, also representing Dare County Schools, “barely missed out on second place in the underwater turbine” category, McCord noted.
That team used a recycled bean can for their turbine blade, he said. Using recycled materials is encouraged, and CSI also raises funds annually to offset the cost of basic supplies for teams.
Dare County would have had even more representation, but Manteo High School competitors had untimely bouts of flu and a pair of Manteo Middle School students backed out after excelling at the science fair with a separate renewable energy project, he said.
“They actually built a wave energy converter for Manteo Middle School’s science fair,” McCord said. “They won that science fair and then they went on to Greenville and won the regional science fair for eastern North Carolina. And this weekend, they’re actually competing at NC State in Raleigh in the statewide science fair; so they have their hands full and they had to drop out.”
Event facilitators start providing marketing materials to schools across the state toward the beginning of each school year, McCord said. Some schools incorporate the program into their curriculum, as it aligns with state science standards, while others run after-school clubs.
“The idea behind the competition is to foster student interest in STEM fields, specifically in engineering and renewable energy, [and] get them thinking about career paths,” McCord said.
In all, 84 students, 16 coaches and 39 volunteers were involved this year. Competing were 11 wind teams—nine middle school teams and two high school teams—as well as six ocean current teams. One middle school and five high school teams competed in ocean currents, he said.
“I think one of the things that's exciting from our perspective is the growth of the ocean current energy division,” he said.
Research into that new sector of renewable energy is currently where wind and solar energy research was in the 1960s and ‘70s, he opined.
“That new blue economy surrounding marine energy will be all the new jobs that are created related to harnessing the power of the ocean,” he said.
The event ran from about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., he said. A video about this year’s event will soon be released, but the 2024 video is available.
Dr. Matt Bryant of NC State University, “who’s one of our researchers on the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program,” presented some of his research about generating power from ocean currents while students ate a pizza lunch after the competition, McCord said.
The devices Bryant studies “hopefully will be the future of power generation as part of a broader energy portfolio for our nation,” he added.
CSI hosts the annual challenge in partnership with the nonprofit KidWind and with Jennette’s Pier, with funding from the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program.
McCord said the event requires many volunteers, and CSI is always willing to train more.
“If folks want to get involved, we welcome it,” he said. “There’s a lot of student involvement. It’s really a fun day.”
Turbines are tested in underwater tanks for the the ocean currents division of the North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge, which took place at CSI in Wanchese on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (Photo courtesy John McCord)
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