Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students will complete a NAPLAN-style test practice paper. Students will complete a reading task to learn more about how Hydro Tasmania produces electricity from wind.

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: This lesson is designed to provide valuable practice for NAPLAN*, the national literacy test held in Years 7 and 9. It features a reading text and a visual text with comprehension and language activities that require students to find facts, interpret meaning and apply text-processing strategies.

General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.7, OI.8.

Australian Curriculum content description:

Year 7 English

  • Understand the way language evolves to reflect a changing world, particularly in response to the use of new technology for presenting texts and communicating (ACELA1528).
  • Understand that the coherence of more complex texts relies on devices that signal text structure and guide readers, for example overviews, initial and concluding paragraphs and topic sentences, indexes or site maps or breadcrumb trails for online texts (ACELA1763).
  • Use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources (ACELY1723).

Syllabus Outcomes: EN4-2A, EN4-3B.

Topic: Hydro Tasmania, Energy.

Time required: 60 mins.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – oversee activity.

Resources required: Student Worksheet (one copy per student OR computers/tablets to access the online worksheet). If students are using a printed copy of the worksheet they will need a 2B pencil to complete the worksheet.

Digital technology opportunities: Digital sharing capabilities.

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

Keywords: Electricity, wind power, Hydro Tasmania, energy.

* This lesson plan is not an officially endorsed publication of NAPLAN’s creators and administrators – the ACARA body – but is designed to provide practice for the Australian Curriculum’s compulsory NAPLAN testing scheme.

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

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 from renewable sources in 2013: enough to power the equivalent of almost 5 million homes.
  • Wind turbines provided enough energy to power 1.3 million homes.
  • 3.1 million Australians lived or worked at a property with solar panels at the end of 2013.

We've still got a long

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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: Where does the wind come from?

Instructions to students

In this lesson, you will complete a NAPLAN* style practice test. The test is in multiple choice, matching and short answer formats.

Part A. Multiple choice: Read the text below and look at the diagram. For questions 1 - 6, write TRUE or FALSE next to the statements. For questions 7 - 16, write your answer as a), b) or c).

Part B. Matching: Match each object below with its purpose by writing the number of each purpose next to the correct object.

Part C. Short answer: Define the words that have been underlined in the Reading Text, making sure that the definitions you give make sense in the CONTEXT of the Reading Text.

When the class has finished, swap tests and mark the answers (out of 30). Each answer is worth 1 mark.

Reading Text

An introduction to Hydro Tasmania

Hydro Tasmania provides electrical energy for the people of Tasmania, Australia’s island state. The word ‘hydro’ means ‘water’. Hydro Tasmania h

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