Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students use the Cool Australia Digital Toolbox – Energy to investigate some big issues around how we create and use energy. Students are then asked to create a podcast, video, infographic or presentation in order to share the results of their research. This activity can be used as an extension activity or as homework.

We’ve taken elements of this lesson and adapted them for remote learning. You can find this activity here.

Essential questions:

  • How does our reliance on energy generated from fossil fuels impact our environment?
  • What actions can we take to reduce our personal consumption of energy?
  • How does using renewable energy help our environment?

21st century skills:

research project energy skills

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Year 5 Science

  • Communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS093)
  • Scientific knowledge is used to inform personal and community decisions (ACSHE083)

Year 5 English

  • Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)

Year 6 Science

  • Communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS110)
  • Scientific knowledge is used to inform personal and community decisions (ACSHE100)

 Year 6 English

  • Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)

Syllabus Outcomes: EN3-2A, ST3-6PW, ST3-4WS.

General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, Literacy.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.6, OI.8.

Relevant parts of Year 5 Science achievement standards: Students discuss how scientific developments help us solve problems, and communicate their ideas and findings using multimodal texts.

Relevant parts of Year 5 English achievement standards: Students create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for different purposes and audiences.

Relevant parts of Year 6 Science achievement standards: Students explain how scientific knowledge helps us to solve problems and inform decisions, construct multimodal texts to communicate ideas, methods and findings.

Relevant parts of Year 6 English achievement standards: Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences.

Topic: Energy

Time required: up to 60 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: Lead the students in activity.

Resources required: Student Worksheet – one copy per student OR computers/tablets to access the online worksheet.

Keywords: Energy, savings, conservation, reduction.

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

TEST

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

chalk-lightbulbsTeacher preparation

Overarching learning goal: Students understand how our reliance on energy generated from fossil fuels impacts our environment, and recognise renewable energy as a more environmentally friendly alternative. Students will also understand what actions can we take to reduce our personal consumption of energy.

Teacher content information: Humans focus a lot on electrical energy because we require it so frequently in our everyday lives. In Australia, we make most of our electrical energy from coal. There are many problems associated with the generation of electricity in a coal power plant. One problem is that when coal is combusted it produces a large amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide - which is a contributor to climate change. Another problem is that coal power plants are not very energy efficient and on average only 30 - 40% of the chemical energy in coal is converted to useful energy - the rest is lost as heat in the conversion process. Coal is also a fossi

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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: How do we create and use energy?

Use the Cool Australia Digital Toolbox - Energy (plus other resources) to research the answers to the following questions. Each answer should be an in-depth response and well structured. 

1. What is the most interesting or important thing you found in your research about energy?

2. What are the ways in which we generate energy currently?

3. What is the relationship between climate change and the way we currently generate energy?

4. What cleaner ways are there to generate energy (i.e that won't produce greenhouse gases)?

5. What is one thing you found in your research that you think would influence the way that people think about energy and our environment?

6. Do you think everyone can do something to reduce the impact our energy use has on our environment? Why or why not?

7. What will you do to reduce your impact of the energy you use on our environment? Create a list of tips that will inspire others to reduce their energy use.

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