WALT: research our inquiry questions.

When Georgia was researching one of her inquiry questions, she found a really informative interactive site that helped her write her expalnation about how hydroelectric dams generate electricity? 

Take a look.

http://www.forteachersforstudents.com.au/Origin/interactives/hydro.php

We are beginning our mini-inquiry research

Inquiry Research

How can machines be used to transform (change) energy from one form to another?

Your mission is to carry out a mini-inquiry about a machine that uses renewable energy to generate electricity. 

Your mini-inquiry will be based around one of the following; wind power (Wind Turbines), water power (Hydroelectric Dams) or solar energy (Solar Panels). 2 students will research fossil fuel power plants.

You will present your inquiry using an information report structure, and will include an explanation structure where appropriate.  Your inquiry will also include diagrams, pictures and flow charts where appropriate.

You will use key words from your research, and notes you have taken from watching ‘You Tube’ clips, to write up your

own summaries for your mini-inquiry.

Inquiry Questions:

As a class we revised what open and closed questions were.

We then worked in groups and brainstormed questions to guide 
our inquiry research.

We had to think about our Big Question and record possible open questions.  
We used the 'question builder chart' to help us.  
We came together as a class and discussed our possible questions and came 
up with the following:  (The yellow highlighted questions are the ones we 
are using for our inquiry.

Location

How do people know where to build ________?

What type of landscape is _________ on?

Where are _________ located and why?

Does a _________ have to be located in a special place and why?

Environmental Impact

How does _________ disadvantage the environment?

How can _________ in an environmentally friendly way?

What impact do _________ have on the environment?

What would happen to the environment if we didn’t have _________?

How are _________ environmentally friendly?

Is it good or bad on the environment to have _________?

Features/Characteristics

What is a _________? What are the features of a _________?

Do you always need _________?

How long have _________ been used to make electricity?

What is the most valued/important feature of _________?

What are the parts of a _________?

Purpose/Work

How do _________ generate electricity?X2

Why were _________ invented? X2

What is the purpose of _________?

Extra Info/Fascinating Facts  (We get to choose which questions 
we include under this heading.)

How long does it take to build a _________?

Does _________ have to have a special weather/climate to work?

How do _________ work?

How can people fix _________ if they break down?

When might we use _________ the most?

Who designed _________?

What is the history of _________?

WALT: use our notes from watching a 'You Tube' clip to write an explanation for our mini-inquiry.

How is wind transformed into electrical energy (electricity)?

To transform the kinetic energy of the wind into electricity, a machine such as a wind turbine is used.

On top of a wind turbine is a box called a nacelle.  Attached to the nacelle are propeller like blades which are attached to a rotor.  Also on top of the nacelle is an anemometer that measures wind speed and direction.  The wind direction rotates the nacelle to face into the wind.  The kinetic energy of the wind turns the turbine blades around the rotor creating mechanical energy.

The rotor connects the main shaft which turns inside the generator housing.  Here a magnetic rotor spins inside loops of cooper wire.  This causes electrons inside the copper to flow, creating electrical energy - electricity.

A step-up transformer inside the nacelle increases the electrical generation -vaults.  The electricity generated then travels down large cables from the nacelle through the tower and into underground cables.  The cables take the electricity generated from all the wind turbines to a sub station.  Here another step-up transformer increases the electrical out-put.  A transmission line connects the electricity out-put at the sub-station to the electrical grid which serves communities in the region.

That in summary, is how wind turbines transform kinetic energy from the wind, into electrical energy - electricity.


Miss Gray used Google Images to find diagrams to support her explanation.

WALT: take notes to help us remember things.

We used a graphic organiser of our choice to record notes about how solar energy is transformed into electricity.  Some of us will use these notes as part of our mini-inquiry project.

WALT: take notes to help us remember things.

We watched this clip about how moving water can be changed into electrical energy, (electricity).
We had to take notes while watching this clip.
To take notes we used :

• a graphic organiser to help record order/sequence
• abbreviations and symbols
• key words
• pictures/diagrams

We learnt that our notes MUST make sense to ourselves.  It doesn't matter how messy they are, as long as we can read and understand our own notes.

So Miss Gray........ you can not have us up about untidy writing, sentences that don't make sense or our spelling and punctuation!

WALT: take notes.

We watched this clip about how Wind Turbines generate electricity?
While watching it, we had to take notes.  We are going to use these notes to write an explanation.