This is a lesson which meets specification points within the WJEC GCSE ‘The Sciences’ Double Award (2026) spec, specifically from Unit 3.2 - Energy Resources & Efficiency (Biology)

The lesson starts with an overview of the key vocabulary which students will be learning and using this lesson. Students can stick their key word lists into their books before the lesson begins.

This lesson begins by students considering how energy is transferred to useful or wasted energy stores and the concept of energy dissipation is introduced. The first activity involves students filling in a worksheet to identify the useful and wasted energy transfers in different systems, this is then self-assessed using the answers on the PowerPoint.

Pupils are then introduced to energy ‘efficiency’ and how they can use the wasted and useful energy values of a system to calculate the efficiency of this device. Pupils are firstly given some easier calculations to try which can be modelled on the board, answers are provided.

Pupils can then complete the worksheet of calculations, which they can self-assess using the answers on the Power Point slide. For the last activity pupils are required to copy and complete a table, filling in missing values of either the efficiency, the wasted energy or useful energy values of different devices. Pupils can again self-assess using the answers provided.

The last part of the lesson introduces students to Sankey diagrams, this is a visual representation of total energy into a system, and the useful and wasted energy out of the system. Firstly, students are shown a Sankey diagram with some values missing, and the teacher will need to model how to calculate these missing values. Students will then be given a set of Sankey diagrams with missing values, which they will need to complete. The answers to this task are included in the PowerPoint so students can self-assess their work once complete.

The plenary activity is a past-paper exit card, I get pupils to hand the completed worksheet to me as they leave and I will mark it and hand it back to them for the next lesson with a grade and improvements.

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