Teacher notes
Each week, the teacher will reply to students ‘check in’ emails to provide individual feedback about their performance throughout the weeks activities. In addition to this, the teacher will provide overall class feedback in the ‘forum’ section of the unit website to outline how the class is progressing week to week.
Notes for week 1
Activity 2
This live collaborate held on Microsoft teams is to provide students with the opportunity to discuss their prior understanding of solar energy. This session will be held on the Tuesday of Week 1 at 10 am and will run for approximately 40 minutes.
Teacher role: In this live collaborate, the teacher will present students with the topic of solar energy. The teacher will pose different questions to the students about solar energy and allow them to discuss and brainstorm their knowledge around each question before moving on to the next. Throughout this lesson the teacher would use prompting questions to help draw out what students know about solar energy.
Student role: In this activity, the students will be in charge of explaining and discussing solar energy. They will demonstrate what they know about the following 3 questions.
· What is solar energy?
· How is solar energy collected to power everyday objects?
· Why do we use solar energy?
Activity 3
The purpose of this activity is to get students to investigate what solar powered objects are being used in around their home and within their local community. We would be expecting to see a variety of everyday solar powered objects on their collages. For example, solar powered garden lights, torches, bike lights, phone charges, radios and solar panels on houses.
Notes for week 2
Activity 2
The purpose of this activity is to get students to demonstrate what they have learnt this week about solar energy. We would be expecting students to include
· What solar energy is?
· How is solar energy collected?
· What are some common everyday objects powered by solar energy?
· The advantages and disadvantages of solar energy
Students would have gained this knowledge by watching the videos and reading the articles in activity 1.
Activity 3
The purpose of this activity is for students to reflect on what they have learnt about solar energy this week. It is expected that students will use their knowledge and understanding they have gained to create a Kahoot quiz. This quiz is expected to have 5 questions which are based upon factual solar energy information. As much as this quiz is testing their peer’s knowledge, it is also representing the student’s knowledge and understanding of solar energy.
We are expecting to see questions that are based upon:
· What solar energy is?
· How solar energy is collected and used to power everyday objects?
· What are common objects powered by solar energy?
· The advantages and disadvantages of solar energy
Notes for week 3
Activity 1:
The purpose of this activity is to get students to outline all the advantages of using solar power and the disadvantages of using non-renewable sources of energy. We would be expecting to explain the main idea that solar energy is a renewable source and we will therefore not run out of it. We would also like to see students explain the idea that non-renewable sources will eventually run out and cannot be replenished. Finally, we would expect students to explain that solar energy is therefore better for the environment as it is a more sustainable energy source.
Notes for week 4
Activity 2:
The ‘explain everything’ presentation provides students the opportunity to reflect on their learning and the steps they took to create their solar powered boats. In the student’s presentations, we would be expecting to see a succinct written description and photograph which demonstrates what they did at each step in order to build their boat. We would also expect students to present this explanation in sequential order. It is expected that their explanations provide enough detail so someone could follow them and create their own solar powered boat.