Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Jobs and maths in renewable energy

15 minutes

Find Out: Civil engineering

20 minutes

Take Action: Thinking like a Civil Engineer: improving hydropower energy capacity

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore the role of civil engineering in renewable energy projects such as the Kidston Pumped Hydro project
investigate how mathematical concepts such as volume, rates, and ratios can be applied to solve real-world engineering challenges.

Students can:

calculate quantities that are directly proportional to another
calculate the volume of a cylinder
apply mathematical reasoning to a real-world context and present a mathematical justification for how increasing water usage in the Kidston pumped hydro project can improve energy output, using real-world data from the project.

Tune In: Jobs and maths in renewable energy

Step 1

Divide your class into groups of 3-4 and provide them with the Student Worksheet. The first question links to the Queensland Government's Future Energy Jobs Guide, which highlights different career pathways in the renewable energy sector.

Pose the following challenge to your students:

Set a time limit for the task (e.g., 3-5 minutes). In their groups, students must skim through the guide to find as many jobs as possible that require mathematics in any way, shape, or form. Students must list the jobs they uncover and be prepared to justify their choices if necessary!

It’s likely this will be a difficult task, as many of the careers listed will rely on Maths in some way, shape, or form, but it is good for students to see how important mathematical understanding is for their future work endeavours.

Discuss their lists and any similarities or differences, asking groups to elaborate. Possible responses from students may include:

Electricians
Solar Panel Installers
Construction Workers
Engineers
Accountants
Data Analysts
Programmers
Scientists

Step 2

One of the common careers that students would find requiring mathematical knowledge is engineering. Explain to students that in this lesson, you will focus on a Civil Engineer’s role in renewable energy, specifically regarding the Kidston pumped hydro project.

Show students the following video about the Kidston pumped hydro project and provide them with some background information.

March 2018 - The Kidston Renewable Energy Hub: Renewable Energy on Tap - Genex Power - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egBJHR6xmiw

Step 3

Invite students to draw a KWL (Know, Wonder, Learned) Chart in their books or use the pre-made table in the Student Worksheet.

Display the Future Energy Jobs Guide on your board and navigate to page 31, which discusses engineering in general. Explain to students that engineers apply science and maths to solve future energy challenges by developing practical solutions to complex problems.

Have students complete the ‘Know’ and ‘Wonder’ columns for the question: ‘What does a Civil Engineer do?’

KNOW What do you think you already know about this topic?	WONDER What do you wonder about this topic?	LEARNED What have you learned about this topic?

Students will have some understanding of what an engineer does based on your explanation but might not know what civil engineering entails. Prompt them to think about where they have heard the word ‘civil’ before and what this might mean in this context.

Note: The ‘Learned’ column will be completed at the end of the lesson.

Find Out: Civil engineering

Step 1

Keeping students in the same groups as before, ask them to head to page 34 of the Future Energy Jobs Guide document and read the information about Civil Engineers. Instruct students to also access the ‘For More Information’ section. Students should consider the following questions while reading:

What types of Civil Engineers are there?
What skills do Civil Engineers need when working on a pumped hydro project?
What does a Civil Engineer's day-to-day look like?
Is there a large demand for Civil Engineers in the renewable energy industry?

Step 2

Bring the groups together to discuss their insights.

Possible responses from students after reading these documents include:

Civil Engineers can work across different areas, such as structural, geotechnical, tunnelling, environmental and construction.
Civil Engineers design tunnels, dam walls and turbines for hydroelectric facilities.
Civil Engineers design and construct the infrastructure needed for renewable energy projects.
Civil Engineers may assess the impact on the environment of their building works.
Civil Engineers may prepare cost estimates, supervise construction, and organise and direct workers and materials in their day-to-day work.
There is currently a high demand for Civil Engineers in the renewable energy industry.

As the facilitator of this discussion, aim to include how engineers are problem-solvers. They are often presented with a problem and tasked with finding the solution (often the most efficient and cost-effective solution), and doing this often requires the ability to apply and use mathematics to their given context.

Step 3

You might like to share the following clips of Gurpinger (an engineer) and Kyle (a jumbo operator), for students to see some of this information in action at the Kidston project.

Energising Queensland - Genex Power | Kyle - Clean Energy Council (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CW0OEARw20)

Energising Queensland - Genex | Gurpinger ‘G’ Mand - Clean Energy Council - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1bnhtQlbVQ)

Take Action: Thinking like a Civil Engineer: improving hydropower energy capacity

Step 1

Distribute 1 copy of the Student Worksheet to each group and read out the introduction and the problem in the Worksheet to the class, encouraging students to look at the birds-eye view diagram of the Kidston project to contextualise the instructions.

Introduction
The Kidston pumped hydro project involves transferring water from the Wises Pit to the Eldridge Pit to generate electricity. Currently, 4.5 gigalitres of water are drained from Wises Pit into Eldridge Pit over a span of 8 hours, which produces 2000 MWh of energy by spinning two 125MW turbines.

However, the Wises Pit has a full capacity of 8.5 gigalitres, meaning not all of the possible water is being used. Your goal is to think like a Civil Engineer and use mathematics to solve the following problem.

Problem: How could the Kidston pumped hydro project be improved by utilising more of Wises Pit’s capacity?

Step 2

Share the following video with your group, which highlights the project director of the Kidston pumped hydro project, to provide more context to their task.

Energising Queensland - Genex Power | Tony - Clean Energy Council (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5rpFXy3oxI)

Explain to students that they will need to think like Civil Engineers and apply their prior knowledge of rates, ratios, and volume to provide a solution to this problem.

Step 3

Allow groups time to complete the Worksheet in their groups and encourage them to problem solve in order to answer the questions. The purpose of the Student Worksheet is to be an open-ended investigation, with the guidance questions provided as scaffolding. Students will need to draw upon prior knowledge, including:

rates and ratios
area of a circle
volume of cylinder
converting between litres and cubic metres.

If your class or particular groups require extra support, use the Suggested Responses in the Teacher Content Information to help scaffold their task by prompting them with formulas they could use, or informing them of the next steps in the question sequence.

Step 4

Bring groups together to discuss their findings and different solutions to the problem. You might take students through the suggested responses to show how a problem like this can be solved.

Discuss the challenges students faced in this activity. Did anyone take a different approach?

Reflection

Revisit the KWL Chart from the beginning of the lesson. Students are to fill in the ‘Learned’ column based on a Civil Engineer’s role in renewable energy, specifically regarding the Kidston pumped hydro project.

Invite students to share what they included in their ‘Learned’ column.

Using Mathematical Knowledge to Improve the Energy Capacity of Hydropower

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Using Mathematical Knowledge to Improve the Energy Capacity of Hydropower

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