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Addicted to energy

Learning objectives

Objectives
Personal Capabilities: Teamwork – to co-operate and reach agreement with others.
Science: - To understand how some ways in which manufacture and transport of goods can cause environmental damage.
- To understand how choices between manufactured goods and services and activities can contribute to sustainability.


Success Criteria
To be successful the students will:

• Identify different ways in which manufacturing goods, doing activities and using services can lead to carbon dioxide production.
• Recognise that choosing activities instead of manufactured goods can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and that this can contribute to sustainability.
• Suggest ways, including environmental benefits, in which to promote a particular activity as a present.
• Work effectively as a member of a small team and recognise some ways of organising effective teamwork.

Try the activity

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Curriculum link

New KS3 Science National Curriculum

Key concepts: Applications and implications of science
1.2a – Exploring how the creative application of scientific ideas can bring about technological developments and consequent changes in the way people think and behave.
1.2b – Examining the ethical and moral implications of using and applying science.

Key processes: Communication
2.2a – Analyse data from a range of secondary sources.
2.3a – Use appropriate methods to communicate scientific information and contribute to presentations and discussions about scientific issues.

Range and content
3.1a – Energy can be transferred usefully, stored or dissipated, but cannot be created or destroyed.
3.4c – Human activity and natural processes can lead to changes in the environment.

Curriculum opportunities
4g – Recognise the importance of sustainability in scientific and technological developments.

KS2 Science National Curriculum

Breadth of study statement 2a Communication
Use scientific language . . . to communicate scientific ideas and provide scientific explanations based on evidence.

KS2 Programme of Study Sc2 5 Living things in their environment
a – About ways in which living things and the environment need protection.

Running the activity

Resources
Addicted to Energy – Sustain to Gain stimulus page
Information sheet 1
Task sheet 1 – Sorting goods, activities and services
Information sheet 2
Task sheet 2
Information sheet 3
Task sheet 3 – Promoting activities
Thinking Frame
Smart Grid
Dilemmas sheet
Make a Difference sheet

Running the task

Introducing the Task
Introduce and discuss the learning objectives for the task. Discuss the importance of teamwork and the need to co-operate to reach agreement. Emphasise that this task will focus on teamwork and reaching agreement.

Use the stimulus sheet to introduce the context for the task. Explore students’ views on the situation shown and in particular which of the presents described would potentially cause least damage to the environment and why this might be.

Use Information Sheet 1 to expand on the context set on the stimulus sheet. Discuss the difference between manufactured goods (products), such as cars, fashion clothing etc. and activities and services. (Use sports activities, hobbies and visits as examples of activities and possibly educational courses, hotel stays etc. as examples of services.)

Emphasise that different aspects of products, activities and services require energy. Products need energy for manufacture, transport and disposal as well as sometimes needing energy when they are being used. Activities and services may use energy but in general not as much.

Task Sheet 1 – Sorting goods, activities and services, asks the students to identify which of six items they would class as goods and which they would count as activities or services and then, following discussion as a team, to put the items in rank order of carbon dioxide produced.

Information Sheet 2 gives an exemplar rank order which students can compare to their ideas. This is not necessarily a definitive order, as the figures given are based on estimates taken from a range of sources. However, it should serve to emphasise that in general goods produce more carbon dioxide than activities and services. The specific nature of a product can obviously affect its ‘carbon footprint’, for example, size of a car, the amount of use a television gets or the amount of leather used to produce a pair of boots. For activities the ‘carbon footprint’ is often influenced by the duration of the activity, for example a longer bi-plane ride would produce more carbon dioxide.


Running the Main Task
Organise the students to work in teams of 4 or 5. Use Task Sheet 2, which focuses on goods and carbon dioxide production. This task focuses on goods rather than activities and services and asks the students to think about the variety of ways in which carbon dioxide is produced when a product is manufactured, transported, used and disposed of.

The students are asked to work as a team to draw a mind map for one of the manufactured goods (car, television or fashion boots). Individuals or pairs within the team could work on one part of the mind map e.g. Recycling, before bringing the whole mind map together as a team. Other effects on the environment of manufacturing the product, as well as carbon dioxide production, could be added to the mind map.

When the mind map is complete, Information Sheet 3 can be used for comparison. This gives a range of ways in which carbon dioxide can be produced when a car is manufactured. Students should then be asked to extend their own mind map further if possible.

Task Sheet 3 – Promoting activities, focuses on potential benefits from activities rather than manufactured goods. Ask each team to allocate roles within their group as suggested on Task Sheet 3. More than one creative designer may be needed. The Thinking Frame sheet can be used to support this activity, helping the team to narrow down ideas and decide on their top activity. The final task involves the team writing down ‘plus points’ that could be used to advertise their chosen activity as a present. If wished the students could produce the advert in poster form to extend the task.

Reviewing the Task
Discuss with the students how well they thought they worked together as a team. Were any of the ways used for organising and supporting teamwork particularly helpful? Discuss with the students how they feel about giving and receiving presents based on manufactured goods or on activities. Which might they choose in future and why?

Involve the students in reviewing the task using the assessment for learning Smart Grid.

Dilemmas
The dilemmas sheet is an opportunity to encourage the Personal Capability of creativity. Students should be encouraged to think of, share and explore new and unusual ideas, putting forward as wide a range of suggestions as possible, not just obvious solutions.

The dilemmas sheet could be used as a basis for discussion about situations where individuals or organisations have to make decisions and possibly compromises about environmental issues. Individual ‘dilemmas’ could be allocated firstly to pairs to discuss before moving to discussion in teams of 4 to 6 and then feed back to the whole class. The class could be encouraged to set up a dilemmas board to extend those shown on the sheet. Students would add additional dilemmas and their suggested responses.


Make a Difference
The make a difference activity is designed to fit in with the aims of the task in offering an opportunity for pupils to reapply their understanding of issues of energy usage around manufactured goods and services, in a context applicable and comfortable to them. The activity could be used as a homework activity and can also be used as formative assessment of prior learning. The take home activity compliments strands AF1 ‘Thinking scientifically’ and AF2 ‘Understanding the applications and implications of science’ of the Assessing Pupil’s progress guidelines [2009]. Teachers should discuss the activity with pupils before giving to them to take home.

Web links

News links

BBC

Data about how growing your own food can cut carbon dioxide emissions

How to save energy blogspot

Infomration about the amounts of carbon dioxide caused by the use of many devices, including Wii, hair straighteners and so on.

Carbon counted

The carbon dioxide produced as a result of rock concerts, skiing and so on.

Reviews & Comments

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