*HOW MANY EVs CAN YOU SPOT!
*This is a very simple but powerful activity! Boys and girls as young as 5/6 years of age CAN do this successfully, individually or PREFERABLY in pairs.
* EVs are very easy to spot. They have no exhaust pipe(s) and there is nothing coming out the back of them! Also in NSW all EVs have a BLUE triangle fixed to their front and back numberplates!
You might want to find out WHY the blue triangle is required and WHO it might help? In what circumstances?
* There are two counts you need to do. This why it's good to do the counting in pairs! One person counts the number of EVs. The other counts when 100 cars [not trucks/double B’s/semi-trailers] have driven by. WHY? Because it is the % [the number of EVs out of every 100 cars that is important].
[NOTE TO TEACHERS: Developing recording sheets can also be part of the students’ work prior to the count ]
* Counting can be done on a road(s) at home or a road outside the school fence- while you are standing INSIDE the fence! The time over which the counting is done doesn’t matter! It is best to choose roads that have lots of traffic passing.
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES: For more advanced students, simple research on comparisons between what they have found and NSW [currently 4-5% EVs], other Australian states, and other countries can be used for oral and written reports.
Stage 3 students might be asked to discuss/write about reasons/explanations for why some countries have more or less EVs.
Maybe a class debate – ‘That Australia should build their own EV cars’- a very current issue!.
Tables/graphs/charts/timelines can also be easily prepared and from this projections/ predictions calculated for different time periods. When will Australia reach 100% EVs?
IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t let students get too dispirited by the low count of electric vehicles they are likely to find! Australia is a long way behind countries in Scandinavia and Europe where 70 % or more of new cars sold are EVs!
While the current figures in early 2024 for ownership of electric cars in Australia is around 12% we have started from a very low base – but in 2023 Tesla sold more electric cars in the world than any other car company, beating Toyota that had previously held that record
So, we are catching up to countries that started before us and have larger populations. What could make the catch-up faster?