Lesson summary
Students will explore how renewable energy can be used as a strategy to reduce climate change and its effects by investigating specific types of renewable energy (solar, hydro, wind, or batteries) and examining their functionality, impact on Earth's spheres, and role in mitigating climate change.
Learning intentions:
Students will...
- understand how the interactions between Earth's spheres are impacted by climate change
- explore how renewable energy technologies can mitigate the effects of climate change.
Success criteria:
Students can...
- identify and describe the impacts of climate change on the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere
- analyse how different renewable energy sources (solar, hydro, wind and batteries) influence climate change and energy flow between Earth's spheres
- explain how technologies like solar panels, hydropower, wind turbines, and battery storage help mitigate the effects of climate change and contribute to sustainable energy flow.
Lesson guides and printables
Lesson details
Skills
This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:
- critical thinking
- collaboration
- communication
- curiosity
- community engagement
- problem-solving
- global citizenship
Curriculum Mapping
Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description: Year 10, Earth and Space Sciences
Students learn to:
- use models of energy flow between the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere to explain patterns of global climate change (AC9S10U04)
- analyse and connect a variety of data and information to identify and explain patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies (AC9S10I05)
Relevant parts of Year 10 achievement standards: Students can describe trends in global climate change patterns and identify causal factors. They can analyse and connect a variety of data and information to identify and explain patterns, trends, relationships, and anomalies.
NSW Syllabus outcomes:
- analyses the impact of human activity on the natural world (SC5-ENV-01)
- evaluates current and alternative energy use based on ethical and sustainability considerations (SC5-EGY-01)
General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium: facilitate discussion, group work and research. Some explicit teaching of concepts is required.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
Resources Required
- Device capable of displaying audiovisual materials
- Student devices for individual research
Additional Info
This lesson has been developed in partnership with the Queensland Government through Queensland's Clean Energy Workforce Roadmap. Cool.org would like to acknowledge and express our gratitude to the Clean Energy Council for the expertise and advice provided in creating these resources.
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