Activity Introduction

powerlines2-hero65-260x300Quick summary: Students will complete a reading task to learn 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 tests held in Years 3 and 5 of Primary school. It features reading and visual texts with comprehension and language questions 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.8.

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 5 English

  • Understand the use of vocabulary to express greater precision of meaning, and know that words can have different meanings in different contexts (ACELA1512)
  • Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources (ACELY1703)
  • Identify aspects of literary texts that convey details or information about particular social, cultural and historical contexts (ACELT1608)

Syllabus outcomes: EN3-3A,  EN3-6B, EN3-8D.

Topic: NAPLAN Preparation, Hydro Tasmania, Energy.

Time required: 60 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – oversee activity.

Resources required: Student Worksheet – one copy per student or a link to the online Student Worksheet version, Internet access (optional).

Digital technology opportunities: Digital sharing capabilities.

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

Keywords: NAPLAN preparation, renewable energy, wind power.

* 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

Sea Wind Farm-hero©WWFTeacher 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

In this lesson, you will complete a NAPLAN* style practice test. The test is in multiple-choice format.

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 has thirty hydropower stations in Tasmania, along with two wind farms on mainland Tasmania and one on an island in Bass Strait. Hydro Tasmania catches the electrical energy from these sources and sends it to places where it is needed, to power people’s homes and businesses. The information below focuses on wind power production.

What is wind?

Wind is moving air. As the Earth turns, the sun heats up some parts of the land and sea more than others. The air above the heated parts is warmed, becomes lighter than the surrounding air and starts to rise. In other areas cool air sinks because it is heavier than the surrounding air. The air pushed out by the sinking cool air is drawn under the rising

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