Activity Introduction
Subjects: Science.
Year Levels: Year 6 and Year 7.
Topics: Climate change. Click here for more lessons on these topics.
Teaching Time: 60 minutes.
Quick summary: Students understand how electric cars work, and demonstrate how they can reduce carbon emissions from transportation, while also considering some of the challenges associated with this solution.
Cool would like to thank the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation for generously supporting the development of these lessons.
21st-century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions: Year 6 Science:
- Electrical energy can be transferred and transformed in electrical circuits and can be generated from a range of sources (ACSSU097)
Relevant parts of the Year 6 Science achievement standards: Students analyse requirements for the transfer of electricity and describe how energy can be transformed from one form to another when generating electricity.
Content descriptions: Year 7 Science:
- Some of Earth’s resources are renewable, but others are non-renewable (ACSSU116)
Relevant parts of the Year 7 Science achievement standards: Students analyse how the sustainable use of resources depends on the way they are formed and cycle through Earth systems.
Syllabus Outcomes: ST3-6PW, SC4-12ES.
General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability.
This lesson is part of the wider unit of work IPCC Climate Change Solutions.
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – Discuss the IPCC report with students, directly instruct students on how electric vehicles work, and support them in independent work.
Resources required:
- A device capable of presenting a video to the class (optional)
- Art materials – coloured pencils and textas
- Individual devices capable of accessing the internet – one per student (optional)
- Presentation Slides (optional)
- Student Worksheets – one copy per student (optional)
- Whiteboard.
Related Professional Development: If you’re interested in learning more about how to approach challenging topics around climate change and sustainability in your classroom through a Hope and Optimism lens, consider our PD course.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
