Lesson plan
Green energy
Topic
Renewable Energy
Aims
• To practise speaking about renewable energy and doing a role play
• To focus on vocabulary related to renewable energy
• To practise reading skills
• To prepare and give a group presentation
Age group
12 - adult
Level
B2
Time
60 – 90 minutes
Materials
1. Green energy Student worksheet
2. Internet links: [Link] BBC science & environment
[Link] - information about green energy options
[Link] -simple and clear carbon footprint calculator
Lesson plan
Introduction
For a more extensive class this lesson could be combined with parts of the Essential UK lesson on Climate
Change. You could easily mix and match activities from both lessons.
Task 1 is based on some simple true or false statements to introduce the topic. Task 2 asks students to think
about how much energy they’ve used today. Task 3 is a matching activity to introduce the different energy
forms and Task 4 is a Trend UK reading text about designers in the UK who have invented products using
renewable energy. Task 5 follows on from task four and asks students to think of another invention that could
be powered with renewable energy and at the end of the lesson there is a role play task.
Procedure
1. Task 1 – This task is to introduce the topic. Write the statements on the board and go through
Green facts – each one and get students to guess if the statements are true or false. Then ask them to
true or false? think of a couple of their own facts.
Answers: All the statements are true.
2. Task 2 – How Ask students to think back to the moment they woke up today. Since that moment how
much energy much energy have they used? Although you won’t be able to quantify it you can ask
have you used them to make a list of all the activities they have done that have used some form of
today? energy. Give some examples of your own to get them going:
Example.
o I woke up - My alarm clock uses electricity.
o I had a shower - The shower uses gas to heat the water.
o I listened to the radio - The radio uses electricity.
o I had toast for breakfast - The toaster uses electricity.
o I had coffee - The coffee maker uses gas.
o I got the bus to school - The bus to get to school uses petrol.
o I went to class - The classroom uses electricity for the lighting and heating. etc
3. Task 3 – This is a matching activity to introduce students to the different types of energy sources.
Energy options As it is it would be more appropriate for intermediate or higher levels. Simplify the
definitions to use with low levels.
Answers:
a – 4, b – 7, c – 1, d – 5, e –2, f – 6, g – 3.
When they have completed the matching activity ask students ‘Which of the sources are
renewable?’ (c-g) find out how much they know about these sources.
Lesson plan
4. Task 4 – This is a Trend UK text about how renewable energy designs are catching on in Britain.
Reading: how It was written by Anatole, a member of the British Council’s Trend UK team.
green is your
energy? Divide the class into three groups A, B and C and give each member of the group the
text that corresponds to their letter. If you have a mixed ability group, ensure you mix up
the strong and weak students. With lower levels, pre-teach the vocabulary you think
they’ll have problems with.
Ask the students to read their text and monitor to make sure they all understand the new
design idea. Then re-group the students so that there is one student A, one student B
and one student C working together. Ask them to tell each other about the inventions
they read about, then they can discuss the questions on the worksheet.
5. Task 5 - Our This leads on from Task 4 and asks students to think of their own green invention. Less
Green invention creative students will need lots of support with ideas from you so have a think
beforehand so you can give them some ideas to get them started. Put students into
small groups for this task.
6. Task 6 - Divide the class into two groups. Give one group the role card for A and the other group
Going green: the role for B. Give the students five minutes to gather their ideas and get their
Role play arguments prepared. You can offer support with expressions and vocabulary at this time.
Then pair up one student from group A with one from group B to have the discussion as
student and director. If appropriate for your group, ask a few pairs to perform their role
play in front of the class.
Contributed by
Jo Budden
