Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Spark your curiosity

20 minutes

Find Out: Exploring the efficiency of renewable energy

25 minutes

Take Action: Future innovators – designing an energy-efficient world

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

apply the law of conservation of energy to analyse and compare the efficiency of electricity generation from various energy sources, including coal, solar, hydro, and wind.

Students can:

explain what energy efficiency is and how it is represented in different energy systems
compare and analyse the efficiency of electricity generation from coal, solar, hydro and wind using data, statistics, and industry interviews
identify factors affecting energy efficiency and discuss potential future careers in energy industries.

Curriculum Connections

In this lesson, students compare the efficiency of electricity generation from renewable and non-renewable sources. The next lesson in this unit, Energy Architects: Engineering a More Efficient Future, builds on and expands upon this knowledge by getting students to analyse the system efficiency of specific renewable projects in Queensland, exploring how engineers enhance the efficiency of these projects. Cool.org recommends teaching these lessons as part of a package.

Tune In: Spark your curiosity

Step 1

Begin the lesson by reading the following statement to your students. You could also write it on a board/screen or have a student read it out to the class:

The way we generate electricity can either save our planet or destroy it – there is no in-between.

Now, get your students moving and ask them to position themselves along a spectrum in the room, along a wall or across the front of the classroom. One end represents strong agreement with this statement, and the other is for those who strongly disagree. They can find their spot on the continuum if they're somewhere in between. Once everyone’s in place, dive into a class discussion. What do you notice? Invite students to share why they chose their spot on the line and encourage them to explore the different perspectives in the room.

Step 2

Next, ask the students how they think this big statement ties into the concept of energy efficiency. Lead them into a conversation about energy efficiency and invite students to volunteer answers.

Remind students that energy efficiency is all about how well an energy system can convert the energy it receives into something useful with as little waste as possible.

This is supported by the ‘Law of conservation of energy’ which states that ‘energy can neither be created nor destroyed – only converted from 1 form of energy to another. This means that a system always has the same amount of energy unless it's added from the outside’ (Source: https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Law_of_conservation_of_energy).

Step 3 (optional or alternative activity)

You might like another approach to illustrate the concept of efficiency using a mixed group activity.

With students still standing up, invite them to form a large circle and choose 6 students to make a smaller circle inside the big circle. Invite 1 student from each group to the front of the room. Provide the student from the smaller circle with the following statement on a small piece of paper: ‘By quickly adopting more renewable energy and storage, Australia can ensure it has a reliable energy supply and avoid any future power shortages.’

To the student from the big group, whisper the following statement: ‘By accelerating the uptake of renewables and storage, Australia has an opportunity to gain total energy security and remove the prospect of reliability issues.’

(Text from Clean Energy Australia Report, 2024)

Invite each group to send their message around the circle, using the whisper train style, by whispering the statement to the person next to them until it reaches the final person in the circle.

Once they reach the end of their circle, the final students should say aloud what they believe the message was. Share the correct answers with the group to see how close each group was. Discuss which whisper train was more effective and why.

Prompt students to talk about the efficiency of the smaller circle. The more simplified message was easier to handle and pass on, meaning more of it could be retained. There were also fewer steps in the train, meaning there were fewer places for things to go wrong or words to be lost or changed.

Encourage students to compare the efficiency of their whisper trains to how energy works in everyday life. Why is efficiency so important?

Find Out: Exploring the efficiency of renewable energy

Step 1

Explain that higher efficiency means more of the renewable (or non-renewable) energy that gets captured is able to be turned into useful energy like electricity, with less wasted as heat or other forms of energy that we can’t use. On the flip side, lower efficiency means more energy is lost along the way, making the system less effective overall.

Thinking about the first question you posed to students, challenge them to consider why focusing on energy efficiency is crucial to protecting our planet. Prompt different students to share their thoughts or share what they’ve heard being mentioned so far.

This is a great segue into discussing renewable energy. You can introduce some recent data from Clean Energy Australia, showing that renewable energy accounted for 39.4% of Australia’s total energy generation in 2023 – up from 35.9% in 2022.

There are a few reasons why efficiency is important:

Renewable energy accounts for 39.4% of Australia's total energy generation. Increasing this number means creating more renewable energy and improving the efficiency of projects. Projects are costly and take a lot of time and resources to create. The more energy we can generate from pre-existing sources, the better!
Non-renewable energy accounts for the rest of Australia’s total energy generation. These forms of energy generation use non-renewable sources that cannot be replaced and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Since we are still reliant on this energy, making these systems as efficient as possible means we can gain as much energy from finite sources as possible without wasting energy or emissions.

Step 2

Explain to students that in this activity, they’ll investigate different renewable energy sources and their efficiency.

Divide the class into small groups of 3-4 students. Each group will focus on 1 type of energy source - either coal, solar, pumped hydro or wind - noting that there may be some double-ups of groups. Each group will aim to become the ‘efficiency experts’ on their assigned energy source.

Hand out the Student Worksheet to each group. They will use the questions below (and on the Student Worksheet) to guide them as they explore relevant links about their energy source from the table in their Student Worksheet. Here are the questions they’ll be investigating:

How is electricity generated from this energy source?
What are the environmental impacts, both good and bad, linked to this energy source?
How efficient is this energy source in Australia? What data can you find?
What are the main factors that affect how efficient this energy source is?
Are there any cool statistics or facts about the efficiency of this energy source?
Where can you find this energy source in Queensland?

Remind groups that it’s really important to take notes. These will be shared with the class to help decide where to take action. Groups could divide up the questions or information so that they have notes ready to share.

Step 3

Once everyone has done their deep dive and gathered as much information as possible, bring the class back together to share their knowledge!

Groups should share their Student Worksheets on a wall, board, or table. Co-locate the groups with the same energy source. Have each group member briefly summarise how energy efficient they found their energy source to be.

As a class, emphasise that it’s important for us to compare the results to see how they stack up against each other. Ask students to go on a ‘Gallery Walk’ for 5 minutes to explore the results from the other energy sources. As they do, move to each energy source and help point out some key pieces of information.

Take Action: Future innovators – designing an energy-efficient world

Step 1

Announce to your students that they now have a key decision to make: to choose and investigate a career in energy efficiency. Of course, a key omission will be coal as an energy source. However, you might like to briefly ask the coal group(s) why it’s not being forecasted as an energy source in the future.

Students must write a short pitch about their reasons for choosing 1 of the careers in energy efficiency. Before deciding, students might like to take a couple more minutes to explore the energy source information displayed. Watching the videos featuring professionals in the energy industry might also benefit their further research and insights.

Allocate areas of the classroom for the 3 energy sources to sit together. Students can choose to work together or individually (as per any other guidance from the teacher) to craft a pitch, but share their ideas and examples as a collective to help each other out.

solar
pumped hydro
wind

Give students a set time (eg 10 minutes) to create a pitch that should at least cover the first 2 points – additional points (*) are provided for students requiring extension:

Highlight the impact and potential scale of this energy source.
Brainstorm ideas and reasons why a career in this energy source is appealing and beneficial.
Suggest how the efficiency of this energy source could be improved.*
Share 1 or 2 of the career roles that could help to improve the efficiency of this energy source.*

HINT: Remind students to use real stories and examples from the information they find.

Step 2

Point your students towards some further key sources of information that will help them build their pitches:

Step 3

Finally, students must create new groupings based on small groups that mix the 3 energy sources. This may take a little bit of coordination, so either assign students to a new group (ie such as numbering) or encourage them to re-group quickly.

Students have about 10 minutes to hear from their group members on their key points (at least 2) about the career in energy efficiency they would promote and why.

Move about the groups and listen in for good and creative arguments. These may be useful springboard points for the start of the next lesson.

Step 4 (optional)

Students can reflect on anything heard in their discussion that they found interesting or unclear. They can develop these ideas into questions that can be answered through independent research. You could differentiate the number of questions and level of research required to answer the questions based on your students.

Reflection

Wrap up the session by asking the students to reflect on their learning.

How has understanding energy efficiency and hearing from industry professionals changed their view of different energy sources? Are there any careers in the energy industry that now seem more interesting to them?
How do they think their energy efficiency knowledge could be useful in those roles?

Exploring Energy Efficiency and Careers

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Summary

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