Topic: Green Energy

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

4th grade of elementary school

IV. Me and my body. Student:

6) describes the basic principles of caring for the body and the environment.

General aim of education

Students indicate clean energy sources

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• exchange methods of generating electricity;

• indicate the advantages and disadvantages of different types of power plants.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• sheets of gray paper;

• colored markers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

• The lecturer draws on the board a diagram of the decision tree including possible solutions to the problem, the positive and negative effects of the decisions made, and the goals and values.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

Realization

• The selected person presents traditional energy sources.

• Participants familiarize themselves with the content presented in the interactive illustration. Then the teacher discusses the issues with the students.

• The instructors together with students determine the situation requiring a decision and ecological consequences of the energy production process.

• The teacher divides the class into five or six groups. Each team receives a sheet of gray paper and markers. Students redraw the diagram of the decision tree from the table. The lecturer explains that completing the scheme begins from the bottom, i.e. from entering the situation requiring a decision.

• Students complete the decision tree scheme: they wonder what possible solutions to the situation may be and jointly determine the three most effective; analyze the positive and negative effects of the proposed solutions; define the goals and values of the chosen solution..

• Each group presents the results of their work and indicates the best method of generating electricity.

• The teacher initiates a discussion about the solutions adopted.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Homework

• Develop a lap book containing issues learned during the lesson and bring your work to the next class.

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Green Energy

There are more and more electrical devices around us, therefore the demand for electricity is constantly growing. In Poland, the most energy (up to 90%) is obtained thanks to coal‑fired power plants. The current is generated in them by thermal energy obtained during the combustion of hard coal or lignite. Unfortunately, this process also produces gases and dust harmful to the environment. A greener source of energy is burning natural gas –several times less impurities are formed than in the case of coal combustion.

The reserves of natural gas and coal will run out sooner or later – although this may happen in a few or several hundred years. These are non‑renewable energy sources, which means that they will run out of after a while. Therefore, renewable energy sources are constantly being sought after.

Renewable energy sources, unlike coal, do not run out. However, the use of them also has some drawbacks.

• The majority of electricity in Poland is produced in coal‑fired power plants.

• Much less negative impact on the environment is produced by power plants using renewable energy sources: wind, water, sunlight and heat from the inside of the Earth.