Teacher Share

Teachers, did you make your own unit or activity or lesson plan for this field trip? If so please email it to us and we will add it to this section, with or without credit to you - your choice.

Teachers, if you are stuck for ideas, then this is the page to visit to see what other teachers are doing or have done.

Video Captions

All the videos have captions which include questions. Individual Word and PDF files with the questions and answers are supplied here for teachers to use as a video activity with their class. The files are uploaded and links are made during the field trip.

  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
  • Friday

Contributions

  • Captioned Images which has enlargements of many ofl the images from the background pages in one convenient file - PDF (2.4mb)
  • Example of a Lesson Planning Sequence - Word | PDF.
  • Boiling Point vs Air Pressure from Donald the LEARNZ Teacher - Word | PDF
    • This practical task is simple and straightforward provided the bung fits well and is fitted the moment the heat source is removed. It is very effective at showing students what occurs in a Wairakei flash plant and condenser of a steam turbine. Students may feel the water boiling before the see it. Remember the safety glasses.
  • A Geothermal Work Booklet for your class from Sharyn Varcoe of Riccarton High School - Word (170k) | PDF (244k)
    Here's what Sharyn has to say about her workbook
    • I have attached an electronic copy of the work booklet I have put together for use with my class. I also add in 3 audioconference sheets (similar to those provided in the Teacher Manual). It means they have a permanent reminder of the fieldtrip which they keep in a Science Portfolio of work. Note – it does mean a lot of photocopying, though!
    • The Resource Sheets referred to in the work booklet are hard copies (and laminated) of the Easy Background reading pages provided by LEARNZ (albeit with a few “tweaks” to suit my class). This means that the class can still work with the fieldtrip when we can’t get access to a computer suite.
    • At the conclusion of the field trip the class will use their knowledge to construct games – e.g. snakes and ladders style and “Into-pics” (Q + A that show a complete picture/graphic when answered correctly), they then trial these games with the rest of the class – a fun way to test their knowledge.
    • Feel free to put the booklet / ideas in Teacher Share – hopefully they will be of use to someone.

  • Clarification of the term "vapour"

    Dear Sirs,

    This is not an enquiry but some information relating to your web resource on water and steam, which I found on the NZGA webpage, but which I gather is more generally used as a resource for physics students. The description of the white stuff that we call steam as vapour is in error. Your info correctly describes dry steam as being transparent, and correctly notes that the white stuff we call steam is white due to the light reflecting and refracting from small water droplets, but is entirely wrong in calling this vapour. It is simply a mixture of water droplets and steam, one can say no more than that.

    There is no clear definition of vapour, and the term should be avoided. You can corroborate this by refering to thermodynamics books, for example "A to Z of Thermodynamics" by Perrot (Oxford Univ press). The term came into use, I believe, in connection with the liquifaction of gases, which could be liquified by increasing pressure alone if they were close enough to the saturation curve (boiling point), in which case they were referred to as vapours. If their pressure and temperature were far into the gas zone then cooling was required to liquify them (eg oxygen and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure) and they were called gases. We know a lot more today, and the term vapour is outdated, but regardless, your use of it is wrong.

    In summary, I recommend you delete all reference to vapour because your current reference is incorrect and the term has no clear meaning, and simply say that the white stuff is a mixture and steam without water droplets would be transparent.

    I hope this is useful - it is a very small detail but quite important.

    Regards
    Arnold Watson
    BSc PhD C Eng FIMech E, former Director of the Geothermal Institute, University of Auckland