Workshop overview
| Year level | 7-10 |
| Capacity | 16-32 students. If you want to bring more students, email highschool.workshops@qut.edu.au |
| When | School days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday |
| Duration | Full day |
| Where | QUT Gardens Point, Science and Engineering Centre |
| Cost | Free (late cancellation fees apply. See terms and conditions). |
Workshop details
In this full day workshop, students learn about modern energy production, with a focus on wind turbines. Students will build and test their own working model before applying this knowledge to plan a wind farm in a real community.
After comparing renewable vs non-renewable energy production and Australia’s energy generation, students are introduced to the fundamental concepts of electricity generation, the law of conservation of energy and energy chains and energy losses.
Students will learn about wind turbines and their components – blade design, gear boxes and generators, learning how each part works, before assembling and testing their own working wind turbine. They will calculate the output power of their turbines and consider environmental impacts, transport requirements and noise pollution.
Finally, using this knowledge students will employ an entrepreneurial mindset to plan and create a wind farm in an existing community. Their proposal needs to consider a range of social and environmental factors, including energy requirements of the town, location, existing developments, budget and community perception.
Topics covered in this workshop:
- renewable vs non-renewable energy
- energy production and transport
- environmental science
- civil and mechanical engineering
- project design and management
- engineering design.
Curriculum links
Year 7
Science
- Some of Earth’s resources are renewable, including water that cycles through the environment, but others are non-renewable (ACSSU116)
Mathematics
- Round decimals to a specified number of decimal places (ACMNA156)
- Recognise and solve problems involving simple ratios (ACMNA173)
- Investigate, interpret and analyse graphs from authentic data (ACMNA180)
- Calculate mean, median, mode and range for sets of data. Interpret these statistics in the context of data (ACMSP171)
Design Technology
- Analyse how motion, force and energy are used to manipulate and control electromechanical systems when designing simple, engineered solutions (ACTDEK031)
- Analyse ways to produce designed solutions through selecting and combining characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment (ACTDEK034)
- Select and justify choices of materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to effectively and safely make designed solutions (ACTDEP037)
- Use project management processes when working individually and collaboratively to coordinate production of designed solutions (ACTDEP039)
Year 8
Science
- Energy appears in different forms, including movement (kinetic energy), heat and potential energy, and energy transformations and transfers cause change within systems (ACSSU155)
Design Technology
- Analyse how motion, force and energy are used to manipulate and control electromechanical systems when designing simple, engineered solutions (ACTDEK031)
- Analyse ways to produce designed solutions through selecting and combining characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment (ACTDEK034)
- Select and justify choices of materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to effectively and safely make designed solutions (ACTDEP037)
- Use project management processes when working individually and collaboratively to coordinate production of designed solutions (ACTDEP039)
Year 9
Science
- Energy transfer through different mediums can be explained using wave and particle models (ACSSU182)
- People use scientific knowledge to evaluate whether they accept claims, explanations or predictions, and advances in science can affect people’s lives, including generating new career opportunities (ACSHE160)
Design Technology
- Investigate and make judgments on how the characteristics and properties of materials are combined with force, motion and energy to create engineered solutions (ACTDEK043)
- Investigate and make judgments on how the characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment can be combined to create designed solutions (ACTDEK046)
- Investigate and make judgments, within a range of technologies specialisations, on how technologies can be combined to create designed solutions (ACTDEK047)
- Develop project plans using digital technologies to plan and manage projects individually and collaboratively taking into consideration time, cost, risk and production processes (ACTDEP052)
Year 10
Science
- Energy conservation in a system can be explained by describing energy transfers and transformations (ACSSU190)
- The motion of objects can be described and predicted using the laws of physics (ACSSU229)
- People use scientific knowledge to evaluate whether they accept claims, explanations or predictions, and advances in science can affect people’s lives, including generating new career opportunities (ACSHE194)
Design Technology
- Investigate and make judgments on how the characteristics and properties of materials are combined with force, motion and energy to create engineered solutions (ACTDEK043)
- Investigate and make judgments on how the characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment can be combined to create designed solutions (ACTDEK046)
- Investigate and make judgments, within a range of technologies specialisations, on how technologies can be combined to create designed solutions (ACTDEK047)
- Develop project plans using digital technologies to plan and manage projects individually and collaboratively taking into consideration time, cost, risk and production processes (ACTDEP052)
Contact us
If you have any questions, comments or feedback about the QUT High School Student Connections program, we'd love to hear from you.