POWER GENERATION
What are the different ways you power the equipment in your homes? Some of us have gas stoves, some of us have houses that run on electricity generated by hydro dams, and some of us have wind farms, thermal power or solar units that generate power for us to use.
Investigate what different ways power is generated in your country. See if you can find out some facts about power use in your region or nationally. What are the different costs of each of the power supplies? How many watts of power is used per day, month or year? How environmentally friendly is this power source?
Choose one of the power sources you have found out about and do some more research into how it works.
You might like to have a go at making your own small scale power generator, using a water wheel or putting a magnet in and out of a coil of copper wire.
Check with your science teacher to see if you can use some equipment.
Choose an interesting way to present the information and then compare it with your pair school. Where there any power sources one country had that the other one didn't? What were they? Why has one power source been used in one country and not the other? What power source is most used in NZ and in Britain?
| National Curriculum areas covered: | |
| New Zealand - Level 4 | |
| Science | Technology |
| Science and technology 2,3 Physical world 1/2,3,4 Material world 3,4 Planet Earth and beyond 4 |
Strand A1, 2b, 3, 4 Strand B 6abcd Strand C7,8 |
| Britain - Stage 3 | |
| Science | Design & Technology |
| Materials and their properties 1abc, 2cdemnop Physical processes 1abcdefghij Energy resources and energy transfer 5a-h |
1abc, 2ab, 3abcd, 10abc |
