Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Gulliver and I am so happy that you are going to be learning some geography with me today.

Well, welcome to today's lesson, which is from our unit on Energy: how do we power the world? And today's lesson is called energy production.

And by the end of today, you are going to be able to reflect on the importance of electricity in your life and you're also gonna be able to record how you use electricity for everyday activities.

Now some of the learning from today may be new, but that's okay.

I'm going to be here with you the whole lesson to help you and I'm really excited to do this geography learning with you today.

Here's our keywords.

Here's or keywords for today.

So I'll say them and then I'll give you a chance to say them.

So the first word, for my turn, generator.

Great, fossil fuel.

Well done.

Nuclear power.

Renewable.

And finally turbine.

Well done, we'll be finding out more about these words later on, but we'll just quickly go through the meanings.

So a generator is a device that converts power from motion, movement, like water or fuel, like a fossil fuel, into electric power.

Fossil fuels are natural substances that were formed over millions of years from the buried remains of ancient organisms. They include coal, oil and gas.

Nuclear energy from inside atoms can be used to generate huge amounts of electricity.

Renewable means that something can be reused and will not be used up or run out.

And finally, a turbine is a device that uses power from liquid or air to turn a rotator to produce electric power.

So all about electricity today.

I hope you've got your geography brains with you, I've got mine.

Let's get going with our lesson.

So our lesson today is going to be in two parts.

We're going to find out why is electricity important and then later on we'll find out how is electricity generated.

So we'll start off, why is electricity important? Electricity is a really important form of energy that powers so many things around us.

Most electricity is produced by generators in power stations and then cables can distribute and that energy to our houses or businesses or schools.

And that's what makes electricity so useful because when we generate it, when we create electricity, we can control where it goes and send it through cables.

I'm sure you've seen electricity pylons like that with the cables that carry the electricity into our houses and it powers so many different things in our homes and businesses.

Here's our first check for today.

Can you fill in the blanks, thinking about what we've just learned? Electricity is an important form of.

And.

many.

around us.

Have a think if you can fill in those gaps.

Well done, electricity is an important form of energy and it powers many different things around us.

So like you said today, electricity provides most of the energy to the modern world.

And I want you to have a think maybe with the person next to you.

What have you already used today that is powered by electricity? There might be things in your home, things in school, things on the way to school.

What have you used today that's powered by electricity? I'm sure you came up with loads of great ideas.

Here's some of the things that I thought about.

Lights are powered by electricity, televisions, fridges where we keep our food, toothbrushes might be powered by electricity, a hair dryer, laptops and computers, toasters, so that we can have some breakfast, and a washing machine.

You might have come up with lots of more ideas of ways that you've already used electricity today.

And I had a think about how I've used electricity so far today and I created this, an electricity diary.

And I listed the electrical appliances that I've used this morning, how long I used it for, how many times I've used it so far today and whether I use these appliances every day.

So I used the kettle, I've used it three times this morning for cups of tea or coffee.

I used the washing machine this morning.

It's not something that I use every day.

I had to use the hair dryer three times because I had to dry my hair and my two little girls as well.

We had the television on for 20 minutes and normally we have that on a couple of times a day, twice a day.

And we do use that every day.

Then I had the toaster on twice for our breakfast, but we don't have toast every morning, so I don't use it every day.

And I've had the laptop on for three hours this morning while I've been doing my work.

So it can show us how many different things we use each day that require electricity.

So electricity is so important to our daily lives.

Which of these items require electricity to work? Is it a bike, a hair dryer or a fridge? Or maybe it's more than one? Have a think.

Well done, the hairdryer in the fridge are powered by electricity.

I've got your first task about why electricity is important.

I'd like you to think about one room.

It might be at home or at school.

So you might think about a living room or bedroom or your classroom and I want you to have a look in all of the compass directions.

So I want you to face north in your room and I want you to see what is powered by electricity when you look north.

Then I'd like you to face south, so in the opposite direction and what do you see in that direction that's powered for electricity? Then I'd like you to repeat that for east and west.

So I want you to have a look in four different directions around the room that you are in north, south, east, and west.

And see what you can see, what's powered by electricity, how many different items are there? Once you've done that, I would like you to have a go at keeping your own electricity diary for one day that lists all of the ways you use electricity.

You might be surprised at how many different items you use.

Let's have a look what I came up with.

So you might have found some of these following ideas when you were looking around the room as well.

I went into my kitchen and I faced north and I saw a kettle and a toaster.

East, I saw a fridge and a radio.

When I looked south I saw a microwave and a light.

And when I faced west I saw a dishwasher and a washing machine.

I also did it for a classroom 'cause you might have some of these ideas as well.

So when I faced north, I saw the computer and some lights.

When I faced east, I saw a smart board and some speakers.

South, I saw a printer.

And west I saw a projector.

So lots of different things that we are using all the time that require electricity to be powered.

Well done, I'm sure you had loads of great ideas as well.

And then here is my electricity diary for a day.

Yours might have looked similar to this, some different things that we've not necessarily talked about.

Phone charging, that requires electricity.

So I use that as well and that's something I use every day.

Games console or computers, they're also powered by electricity and sometimes we can use them quite a lot, can't we? And then again, the hair dryer, TV, toaster, microwave, all things that require electricity to be powered.

We're gonna have a think about the second part of our lesson now about how electricity is generated.

So electricity can be generated in a range of ways and we're gonna think about three different ways that we generate electricity in the UK.

And one way, and actually the main way that we generate electricity is through using fossil fuels.

Coal, oil and natural gas can be burnt in power stations to produce electricity.

And in the UK 40% of our electricity was generated in power stations by burning fossil fuels in 2022.

So burning fossil fuels is still the main way in the UK that we produce electricity.

Another way that we can produce electricity is by using renewable sources.

So wind, biomass and solar energy are examples of renewable sources and these can also be used to generate electricity.

And we are going to have a look at these three different renewable sources in a moment.

And at the moment about 37% of electricity in the United Kingdom was generated from renewable sources in 2022.

So it's closing in, it's getting closer to the amount of electricity produced by fossil fuels and hopefully one day our electricity generation from renewable sources will be greater than our electricity generation from fossil fuels.

We're gonna have a look at each of these renewable sources in turn and find out how they are used to produce electricity.

So wind energy is able to generate electricity by using these big tall turbines.

And maybe you've seen some in the countryside or near to where you live.

And when wind blows, it turns the big propeller like blades of the wind turbine around a rotor.

And this movement of the rotor, when it spins, it also spins a generator which creates electricity and we are able to then send that electricity through those cables around to houses and businesses.

So wind can be used to generate electricity.

Biomass is a renewable natural material from plants and animals.

And this can also be burned like fossil fuels to produce high-pressure steam.

And the steam again turns a turbine blade.

And when the turbine blade is turning, it also turns a generator which is able to produce electricity.

So that one's a bit different 'cause it gets burnt to produce steam to turn a turbine.

And then the final renewable source that we are going to look at as a way of creating energy is solar energy.

And you might have seen solar panels again nearby you on the tops of roofs or in fields.

And solar panels are usually made from a material called silicon.

And when silicon is exposed to sunlight, it can produce a charge and this can then generate into electricity.

So there're three renewable methods of producing and generating electricity.

And then the final way we're gonna think about how electricity is generated is through nuclear power and nuclear energy from inside the nucleus, the core of atoms, can be used to generate huge amounts of electricity.

There's enormous energy which hold these atoms together really tightly.

And when they're split apart it can release huge amounts of energy which can be turned and generated into electricity.

And in the UK at the moment, or in 2022, about 16% of our electricity was generated in nuclear power stations.

I've gotta check for you, true or false, all electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.

Is that true or false? Well done, that's false.

And here's some statements to help you justify your answer.

Do you think A, some electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, it can also be generated by using renewable sources and nuclear power.

Or B, fossil fuels do not generate electricity.

Well done, some electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, but it's also generated by using renewable sources and nuclear power.

And I've got a graph here to show you about how the electricity in Britain is generated in all different ways.

We covered some of these.

We thought about fossil fuels, so gas and coal.

And we thought about some renewable sources.

We thought about wind and solar and biomass energy and nuclear power is also on there.

But you can see that we also import some electricity.

We actually buy it from other countries.

And then the final way on here that electricity is generated in the UK is through hydropower, through the use of water.

And that can also generate electricity.

And you can see, like we talked about, most of the electricity generated in the UK comes from the burning of gas through those fossil fuels.

And then wind power is the next biggest provider of electricity in the UK.

Here's your final tasks for today then.

I'd like you to match the explanations to the correct method of producing electricity.

And you've got nuclear power, fossil fuels and renewable sources.

And then their explanations.

I'd like you to match those up to the correct explanation.

When you've done that, I'd like you to create your own bar graph to show the main ways that electricity in Britain was generated in 2022.

Once you've created your bar graph, I'd like you to write at least two sentences to explain and describe how electricity was generated in Britain in 2022.

And I've got some sentence starters here, which you could use if you wanted to.

So you might tell me about the main source of electricity for Britain.

You might tell me about another key source of electricity or you might tell me about a source of electricity that contributed a very small amount of electricity to Britain in 2022.

So have a go at those tasks, matching up the definitions, creating a bar graph and writing your sentences.

I'm sure you'll do a great job and then we'll come back together in a little bit to see how you got on.

I hope you had a good go at those tasks.

I'm sure you did.

So when you are matching the explanations, I'm sure you linked nuclear power to energy from inside atoms that can be used to generate electricity.

And fossil fuels to coal, oil and gas, which can be burnt to produce electricity.

And finally, renewable sources to wind, biomass and solar energy, which can be harnessed to make electricity.

Your graph may well have looked similar to mine showing how gas, wind, nuclear, biomass, solar and hydro energy are used to generate electricity in 2022 in Britain.

And then you might have used or you might have created some sentences which are similar to mine.

You might have said that the main source of electricity for Britain in 2022 was generated by a fossil fuel - gas.

You might have said another key source of electricity was a renewable source of energy - wind.

You might have said a source of electricity that contributed a small amount of electricity to Britain in 2022 was solar power.

And that nuclear power generated about 15% of Britain's electricity in 2022.

I'm sure you a brilliant explanation about how electricity was generated in Britain in 2022, well done.

So to summarise today we learned that most electricity is produced in power stations and then cables distribute the energy to our houses, schools, and places of work.

We thought that today electricity provides most of the energy to power the modern world.

And finally we learned that electricity can be generated in a range of ways by burning fossil fuels, by harnessing and using renewable sources such as wind, biomass, and solar power, and by using nuclear power.

Thank you so much for learning about energy production with me today.

You have tried so hard and done a great job.

I hope to see you again soon.

Bye.