Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students identify questions of interest and find ways of obtaining information about energy. They present the information they have gathered into a paragraph and illustrate it or incorporate a photo.

Key lessons and understandings of activity:

  • We need sources of energy such as electricity, petrol and gas. However, sometimes we waste energy.
  • Using keywords in search engines will help find the information we seek online.

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Content descriptors: 

Year 3 English

  • Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (ACELY1680)
  • Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence (ACELY1677)

Year 3 Science

  • Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE050)

Year 4 English

  • Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (ACELY1692)
  • Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular purposes and audiences (ACELY1689)

Year 4 Science

  • Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE061)

Syllabus outcomes: EN2-4A, EN2-6B, ST2-4WS.

Topic: Energy

Year levels: 3 and 4

Indoor or outdoor activity: Indoor

Time required: 45 mins

Learning areas addressed: Science, English, ICT, Geography.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Organising time on computers, helping groups to identify their questions to research.

Resources required: Internet access, materials or computers to make a report.

Homework and extension opportunities: This activity includes opportunities for extension.

Keywords: Energy, research, petrol, gas, electricity.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher preparation

Explain to students that;
1.    They will be divided into small research groups
2.    The class will use a thinking tool to organise their ideas and questions of interest
3.    Each group will choose a different question to research
4.    Students will use keywords to find information about their question (decide on which search engine will be chosen)
5.    Each group will make a poster or other kind of report and write a paragraph about what they found out
6.    Each group will have 2 minutes to present their report.

Start with a broad question such as 'What do we need to know so we can stop wasting energy?' From this big question, get groups to focus on a smaller research question.

Examples of research questions:

  • Where does electricity, petrol and gas come from?
  • How do we use electricity, petrol and gas?
  • What is electricity?
  • What is an energy rating on a fridge?
  • How does a small car use less petrol compared to a big car?
  • How much electricity
...
 
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Student Worksheet

Your group is going to decide on a simple research question that helps us determine what we need to do to stop wasting electricity. Each group will choose a different question to research.

1. Our question is:

Type key words into an online search engine to help find relevant information. Use the table below to help you.

Keyword

URL

Key information

3. Each group will make a poster or other kind of report and write a paragraph about what they found out. Summarise your paragraphy below.

 

 

 

 

4. On a separate piece of paper make a poster that contains your paragraph and a picture.

...
 
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