Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
These teaching materials are designed to support the use of the Carbon
Detectives website. They provide a foundation for understanding how energy use,
travel and food can impact on climate change and suggest ways for reducing
such impact by reducing the school’s carbon footprint.
They have been designed to be used by teachers who will be able to differentiate
each activity in accordance with the age and ability of their pupils.
Contents
SECTION 1
Weather & Climate
SECTION 2
Climate Change
SECTION 3
Energy
SECTION 4
Energy Conservation
SECTION 5
Travel
SECTION 6
Food & Nutrition
Intelligent Energy
Europe
Carbon Detectives is supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme and is active across Europe.
The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not
responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
Story
- A version in play format has been provided at the end of this section for you to use in role playing activities.
L
ena and Jakob will be late for school today if they don’t hurry. Sprinting the last few hundred metres, they make it just before
the bell. The two arrive in class still huffing and puffing. “Whew, that was exhausting. I’m soaking wet with sweat.” Jakob gasps
between breaths. “No wonder,” Lena utters back, “we just used up a lot of energy.” Jakob is now on his favourite topic. “We sure
did. I know that saving energy is one way to protect the climate, but does that mean we’re not allowed to run and sweat anymore?”
The teacher enters the room and hears Jakob’s last question. She smiles and answers, “Don’t worry, Jakob, exercise is healthy and it’s
certainly not bad for the climate. As for climate protection, it’s important to do things like turning off the lights when we’re not in class
and making sure that we don’t leave computers on standby. Walking to school instead of having your parents’ drive you also helps protect the climate,
because cars emit a lot of CO2.”
“
What is Energy?
We use energy in countless different ways, such as to light and heat our homes or when we use a vehicle to travel to school.
Almost everything we use in our daily lives requires energy to be manufactured and transported: e.g. clothes, toys, computer games, etc.
Energy is not something that we can see, hear, taste or smell. However, energy is all around us. It takes on many forms that we encounter all the time in our daily lives: like the warmth of a fire, the light of the
Sun, the power of the wind, and electricity out of a wall socket. Even such different occurrences as a streak of lightning and sweating during activity are ways in which we experience energy.
Activity: My Energy Diary
For homework, ask the children to record their energy use for one day over the weekend starting from when they wake up and finishing when they go to bed to sleep.
An example might be.
My Energy Journal
I turned on the lights
used warm water to brush my teeth
used my mp3 player, etc.
In class, complete a tally chart of the results of their daily uses of energy. How many children used energy in the same activities?
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
Activity: Where and when is energy used?
Activity: Build a Solar Shower
As a class, brainstorm all the ways in which we use energy in school. Also include products that
need energy in order for us to be able to use them.
On a sunny day in groups, ask the children to create their own solar shower in the schoolyard
Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Sources
Even if we often hear and use the term “energy production,” human beings, as well as animals
and plants, cannot actually produce energy. Instead, they all convert one form of energy into
another.
For example, when we eat a sandwich as a snack, we are actually absorbing nutritional energy.
Or, in other words, the bread contains energy that we can use. In turn, the human body converts
this form of energy into growth or the ability to move about.
A car, too, requires an “energy source” to propel it. This could be petrol or biodiesel fuel.
There are two main groups of energy; renewable energy and non renewable energy.
Renewable Energies
To effectively protect the Earth’s climate it is not enough to simply save (conserve) energy. We
also need to replace coal, natural gas and crude oil with renewable energies. By renewable
we mean energy sources like the Sun, wind, water, earth (geothermal energy) and biomass.
Renewable refers to the fact that these energy sources can be used indefinitely. They won’t run
out. In fact, nature has everything we need for environmentally friendly energy production; we
just need to make sensible use of what is there.
I am the Sun!
Each and every day, I deliver many thousand times more energy than could possibly be used
by the entire planet. I leave no waste behind and I am strong enough to last a few billion
more years. And here is the best part: The light I send to Earth can be directly converted into
electricity by so-called “photovoltaic” power plants. The same goes for the heat that I give off,
which can be captured by something called a “solar collector” for heating water. You can use my
energy, or solar power, to take a warm shower, heat your room in the winter, and much more.
Each group will need:
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A clean, black rubbish bag (not too large)
Some string or a cord
Give out these instructions:
Fill the rubbish bag with water and tie it shut (on top) so that no water can leak out.
Now hang the bag in direct sunlight or simply place it on the ground.
After 3-4 hours, carefully cut away a corner of the bag and enjoy a warm shower or splash.
Explain to the children that the black bag, as a solar collector, absorbed the heat energy from
the sun and heated the water inside!
Activity: Build a Solar Potato Oven
Carry out this experiment with the class. If you have enough equipment, ask the children to
carry out the experiment in groups.
You will need:
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A large salad or baking bowl made of ceramic or stainless steel
(but not plastic, it may melt!)
Potatoes
Aluminium foil
Lots of sunshine
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
Instructions:
Give out these instructions:
Line the inside of the bowl with aluminium foil and put several small (or quartered) potatoes in
the middle. Now place the bowl in direct sunlight.
1) Place the sheet of paper flat in front of you with one corner pointing towards you. Fold the
bottom corner over the top corner to form a triangle.
WARNING: It can get very hot in the bowl! Take care not to burn your
fingers! Your potatoes should be done in about an hour, but use a
toothpick or fork to check them.
2) Open the triangle and now fold the left corner over the right corner. Open the triangle again.
You should see two creased lines running between the corners.
Explain to the class that the aluminium foil allowed the heat energy from the sun to go quickly
through it and to heat the potato inside. Foil is therefore a good conductor of heat.
I am the wind!
3) Using the scissors, start at each corner and cut along the creased line until you reach
approximately half way to the centre of the paper.
4) Gently bend a free tip from each corner towards the paper’s centre, (don’t fold) such that four
(alternate) tips eventually meet and overlap. Now stick the pin through the four tips at the centre.
5) Pin your paper construction onto the stick and your windmill is finished!
The rays of my friend, the Sun, heat up the Earth’s air layers to various different temperatures.
The warmer air expands and rises upward while the cooler air is heavier and sinks downward.
That causes large “air parcels” to move and shift around. You can feel this movement because it
is me – the wind! I can shake the trees and make umbrellas fly about, but it’s much more fun to
mess up your hair! I’m also powerful enough to make windmills spin round, even big ones used
in wind farms to make clean electricity.
Activity: Make a windmill
Inform the children that they will be designing their own windmills.
Each child will need:
•
•
•
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One sheet of construction paper (approx. 12 x 12 cm)
A sewing pin
A wooden stick
A pair of scissors
On a large plan of the school, ask the class to identify the windiest places around the school.
Take the class outside with their windmills to see if they are correct. Areas where their windmills
spin round fast are likely to be the windiest places around school.
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
Recipe for bread on a stick:
I am biomass!
You know me already in many forms, e.g., wood, straw, sunflowers, etc. Like coal, oil and
natural gas, these are all energy sources. That means they, or I, can also be burned to produce
electricity. But the good thing about yours truly, biomass, is that I can be replenished by simply
growing more of me!
Activity: Make a bonfire and grill sausages or
cook bread on a stick
To make the dough, mix whole grain flour (about 50 grams per person) with water, salt and
herbs of your choice. Knead the dough until it is firm and shape it into flat strips. Wrap a dough
strip on the end of a stick and hold the stick over the fire. Your bread on a stick will soon be
ready to eat! Enjoy!
Attention: Once the fire has burned out, make sure to spread the embers around the pit
(using a stick) and pour water on them or cover them with sand or earth. Never leave the
site of a fire before ensuring that the fire is completely out!
I am biogas!
! This activity requires the presence of an
adult !
I belong to the biomass family. The ingredients for making me are either organic waste (e.g.
food remains) or slurry (liquid manure). These are placed inside a large, airtight tank for several
days until they ferment. Bacteria inside the tank do all the work, as they convert the waste or
slurry into a combination of fertiliser and methane gas – which is what I really am! I am powerful
enough to use as a fuel for motors that produce electricity and heat.
Activity: Make your own biogas
Maybe useful for older children on residential or camping trips.
Ask the children to collect the fruit waste and vegetable waste from their lunches which will be
used to conduct this experiment. Give out the equipment to the children in groups.
First you need to find a suitable location, ideally an open meadow without trees. Make sure to
ask the owner of the land or the responsible authorities for permission to make a fire.
Each group will need:
ATTENTION: If it hasn’t rained in a while or the ground is extremely dry, fires can be
dangerous and are therefore not allowed!
Once you’ve found a spot, make a circle out of large stones to create a fire pit. Pile dry wood in
the middle and use smaller pieces of wood (kindling) and paper to start the fire. Soon, you will
feel the warmth and power of the flames (burning biomass!). Heat from biomass like this wood
can also be used to heat homes or generate electricity.
Use a stick as a skewer for your sausage or hot dog and roast it on the open
flame. You might also try making “bread on a stick” or baking potatoes in the fire’s hot embers.
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A see-through plastic bowl
Cling film
Rubber bands
Organic waste (biowaste)
Give out these instructions:
Fill the bowl half way with organic waste (e.g., fruit peels, vegetable remains, etc.) and cover it
with plastic wrap. Make sure to create an airtight seal by securing the cling film around the bowl
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
with rubber bands. Place the sealed bowl in a warm location and regularly observe it over the
next several days. Ask the children to note any changes in the waste material and write them
down in a notebook. What did they notice about the plastic wrap? Normally the wrap should
bulge upwards due to the formation of biogas inside the bowl. Open the window and ask the
children to puncture the plastic wrap with a needle, the gas will escape and they should be able
to smell it. When punctured, the wrap will also resettle or sag downward. Discuss what they
have found out from the activity.
I am water!
My energy (hydropower) is climate-friendly and renewable. For example, the rushing currents
that I help create in rivers can perform useful work. I flow down riverbeds directly into
hydropower plants where I make large turbines spin round. The turbines drive (turn) generators
that make electricity. I’m very proud of the fact that my power, hydropower, is being used more
today than any other climate friendly energy form! But I also want everyone to make sure that
the many life forms living in rivers – like fish and insect larvae – as well as the surrounding
landscapes are not disturbed too much by hydropower plants!
In the oceans, too, I create powerful forces that can be very useful. The change of tides, for
example, is today used by tidal power plants to produce electricity. Likewise, the force of waves
and ocean currents can also be converted into electrical energy.
Activity: Build a water wheel
Useful to carry out in a small group such as an after-school environment club, Eco Group or with
Gifted and Talented pupils
The children will need the following (for each water wheel):
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•
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Two long skewers or similar wooden sticks
Eight short skewers or toothpicks
A cork
Three empty milk or fruit juice cartons
Scissors
A stream or, alternatively, a hose pipe
Together, follow the following instructions:
Stick one of the long skewers, or one of the long sticks, into the centre of the cork (where a wine
opener would normally go to open a wine bottle). Do the same on the other side of the cork,
making sure that the two skewers form a straight line (when finished, it should look like a single
skewer has been stuck through the centre of the cork, and this will be the axle of the water
wheel).
Cut four rectangular pieces out of the carton, such that each is approximately the same length
and width as the length of the cork. Using two short skewers or toothpicks for each, fix the four
pieces to the long side of the cork at equal intervals.
Next, punch a hole in the upper portion of each of the two remaining cartons (at an equal
height). Fill the cartons roughly half way with water and stick the ends of the water wheel axle
into the two holes. To see it work, hold the water wheel under running tap water or run water
from a hose over the blades of the wheel on the school playground.
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
I am geothermal energy!
I’m sure you all know what a volcano is, and that hot lava flows out of a volcano’s crater when
it is active. If so, you probably also know that it is very hot deep inside the Earth. But did you
know that I, geothermal energy (or “earth energy”), live deep inside our planet? If not, that’s
not unusual, since people tend not to notice me – even though I can be very useful to human
beings! For example, to use geothermal energy for heating or to make electricity out of me,
people sometimes pump water deep inside the Earth. After a while, my energy has heated
up the water and it can be pumped back up to the surface. So, even though I live “way down
under,” I can be used to heat homes or produce electricity!
For more information and activities on renewable energy see
http://www.ourplanet.org.uk
Non-Renewable Energy Carriers
Non-renewable energy sources can only be used once. We cannot replenish them because their
supply will eventually run out. Burning these energy sources emits (releases into the air) climatedamaging gases, such as CO2, which is the major cause of the man-made greenhouse effect.
The following are non-renewable energy sources:
Crude oil, or petroleum, was made by the remains of tiny plants and animals which deposited
on the floor of the Earth’s ancient seas. Bacteria decayed the remains and the plant and animal
waste products ultimately turned into crude oil over millions of years. Today, crude oil is not
only used to make petroleum (for cars) and kerosene (fuel for heating), but it is also a common
primary material for the manufacture of skin creams, shampoos and many other products.
Coal was created over a period of several hundred million years from the remains of dead plants
left by sunken forests.
Natural gas formed long ago together with crude oil. Natural gas is often burned in boilers to
heat water and to provide central heating in homes. Compared to crude oil and coal, natural gas
emits less pollutants and CO2.
Few people realize that crude oil, natural gas and coal all came from the power of the Sun!
That’s because even many millions of years ago, it was the power of the Sun which made the
plant and animal life possible that later turned into these fuels.
We thus have the Sun to thank for petroleum (oil), natural gas and coal, even if these formed
millions of years ago. In fact, almost every energy source on Earth traces its existence to the
Sun. The only sources of energy used by human beings today and not coming from the Sun are
geothermal (or earth energy), tidal power and atomic power.
The special case of atomic energy.
A nuclear fuel (usually uranium) is needed to produce atomic energy and such fuel is nonrenewable. Atomic energy is not as bad for the climate as burning oil, coal or natural gas, but
nuclear power plants do produce a very toxic (poisonous) and dangerous waste (“radioactive
waste”) that remains a risk to our planet and its life forms for many, many years.
Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (age 8-11)
Role play:
Lena and Jakob will be late for school today if they don’t hurry. Sprinting the last few hundred metres, they make it just before the bell. The two arrive in
class still huffing and puffing.
Jakob:
Whew, that was exhausting. I’m soaking wet with sweat.
Jakob gasps between breaths.
Lena:
No wonder, Lena utters back, we just used up a lot of energy.
Jakob is now on his favourite topic.
Jakob:
We sure did. I know that saving energy is one way to protect the climate, but does that mean we’re not allowed to run and sweat
anymore?
The teacher enters the room and hears Jakob’s last question. She smiles and answers.
Teacher: Don’t worry, Jakob, exercise is healthy and it’s certainly not bad for the climate. As for climate protection, it’s important to do
things like turning off the lights when we’re not in class and making sure that we don’t leave computers on standby. Walking to
school instead of having your parents’ drive you also helps protect the climate, because cars emit a lot of CO2.