Teaching Sequence

5 minutes – Ask students to view the Student Worksheet and Hydroelectricity 101 - Resource Sheet (available on the Student Worksheet)
10 minutes – Ask students to read through the Hydroelectricity 101 - Resource Sheet independently and complete answers to the questions on the Student Worksheet
5 minutes – Collect the students’ sheets and correct their answers

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Step 1.

Students can work independently or in pairs, at the teacher’s discretion.

Step 2.

The students should read the Hydroelectricity 101 - Resource Sheet first, then answer the questions.

Step 3.

Ensure that students understand that this work will need to be submitted for marking.

Step 4.

Collect the students’ work and mark using the answers below.

Differentiated activities

Provisions for Learning Support: Students requiring special assistance should be allocated additional reading time, as well as planning and working time in which to complete the task. They may require help in defining difficult terms presented on the Resource Sheet. Ensure that a dictionary is available, or assign a reader to assist them.

Extension activity: Students could use their background knowledge or an online search tool to find out which scientist most significantly contributed to our knowledge about the properties of electromagnetism. They could write a paragraph or two detailing this person’s key contributions to the field. (TIP: the answer is Michael Faraday.)

Homework

Students could conduct some online research to find engineering diagrams illustrating the hydroelectric process. They could compare their diagram with those they find, in terms of clarity and completeness, and adjust their diagram accordingly.

Answers

NOTE: Answers should be presented in full sentence form, except for Question 7.

1. The prefix ‘hydro’ refers to water.

2. The river selected for the site of a hydroelectricity operation needs to have a particular degree of slope because the operation relies on the force of gravity acting on water flows.

3. The action of water contributes mechanical energy to the operation.

4. The two natural forces employed to turn the propellers are the weight of the water and gravity.

5. Hydro Tasmania’s operation could be considered ‘green’ because of their re-use of water resources.

6. The other machines necessary to the operation are pumps used to return water to the dam for re-use.

7. What we call an electrical current is a flow of 'electrons' in an unbroken chain.

8. Power lines are made of metal because they need to be highly efficient conductors of electrical current.

9. Permanent magnets are always magnetic in their natural state. An example is a lodestone such as magnetite. Temporary magnets are only magnetic when they are affected by an electrical current. An electromagnet is an example of a temporary magnet.

10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 marking should be at the teacher’s discretion.

Hydro Tasmania - Hydroelectricity 101

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