Activity Introduction

painting-art-heroQuick summary: Students will learn about Hydro Tasmania’s sustainable creation of energy from water and create artworks that explore this information. The art-making will imitate the style of Ancient Egyptian wall paintings.

Activity developed in partnership with   tasmania_hydro_200x84_300pxl

Hydro Tasmania has been at the forefront of clean energy innovation for one hundred years. It is Australia’s largest producer of clean energy – generating hydro and wind power – and the largest water manager. Hydro Tasmania has 55 major dams, operates 30 hydropower stations and has built some of Australia’s largest wind farms.

Hydro Tasmania also sells energy in the National Electricity Market through its retail business Momentum Energy, and sells its expertise internationally through its consulting business Entura. Visit the Hydro Tasmania website to learn how the business is working towards Australia’s clean energy future.

Learning goals:

  • Students respond to and appreciate artworks.
  • Students understand the importance and value of sustainable energy methods.
  • Students engage in art-making to demonstrate their understanding.

General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, Personal and social capability, Ethical understanding.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.8.

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 7 & 8 Visual Arts

  • Practise techniques and processes to enhance representation of ideas in their art-making (ACAVAM121)
  • Identify and connect specific features and purposes of visual artworks from contemporary and past times to explore viewpoints and enrich their art-making, starting with Australian artworks including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACAVAR124)

Year 7 History

  • The physical features of ancient Egypt (such as the River Nile) and how they influenced the civilisation that developed there (ACDSEH002)

Syllabus outcomes: VA4.1, VA4.4, VA4.7, VA4.9, HT4-2

Topic: Hydro Tasmania, Energy.

Time required: 60 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – oversee activity

Resources required:

  • Paints, paintbrushes, pencils, erasers, thin to medium black or brown art markers
    Note: this activity can also be completed using colour pencils instead of paints.
  • One sheet of A3 or A4 paper (painting quality) for each student
  • A few images of Ancient Egyptian wall art on printed sheets or displayed using a projector, smartboard or individual device. We recommend doing a simple internet search to find images.
  • Method of displaying the Hydro Tasmania webpage: https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/battery-of-the-nation/pumped-hydro
  • Internet access
  • Student Worksheet – one copy per student OR computers/tablets to access the online worksheet 

Digital technology opportunities: Digital sharing capabilities.

Homework and extension opportunities: Includes opportunities for homework and extension.

Keywords: Art, water, Ancient Egypt.

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

Overarching learning goal: By participating in this activity students will be able to understand the importance and value of sustainable energy methods. They will also be able to respond to and appreciate artworks and engage in art-making to demonstrate their understanding.

Teacher background information: Energy is the lifeblood of our modern life. It gives us light and keeps our food fresh. It powers our industry, fuels our cars, and charges our iPhones. Our energy is produced by burning fossil fuels and this has a range of environmental, social and economic impacts. One of the most significant is the emission of greenhouse gases. A solution is the transition to clean energy sources. The brilliant thing is that we have huge amounts of free, renewable and clean supplies of natural energies. These include sunlight, wind, running water, oceans and underground hot rocks.

According to the Clean Energy Australia Report 2013:

  • 14.76% of Australia's electricity came
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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: Can you think of any artists who use water in their work?

Part 1: Think

You might not have noticed it before, but the squiggly hieroglyph (symbol) below appears quite often in Ancient Egyptian art. It is commonly called the ‘N-water ripple’ and represents exactly that: water. Everyone knows the importance of the Nile River in Egypt, but archaeologists are finding that water may have been even more important to the Ancient Egyptians than previously thought. It is now believed that water was used to move huge stone blocks in pyramid construction, and that the Egyptians may have discovered ways to convert water into energy – just like Hydro Tasmania.

water-ancient-egypt

Part 2: Learn

Read the information at https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/battery-of-the-nation/pumped-hydro to learn about Hydro Tasmania’s clever use of water to produce energy.

Part 3: Look

This art-making activity requires you to present some of the information you learned in Part 2 in the form of an Ancient E

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