Indiana Wesleyan University

LESSON RATIONALE
Students will learn about the significance of renewable and nonrenewable resources and how we
use them daily in our lives without knowing, this is important because as our resources decrease
students need to learn the significance of working together to provide a more sustainable
environment.

READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s)— Students will identify coal, natural gas, oil (petroleum), wind, sunlight, and
water by their energy and classify each resource as a renewable or nonrenewable
resource.
B. Objective(s)—
● Students will identify natural resources
● Students will identify and define renewable and nonrenewable resources
● Students will “mine” for resources and classify them as renewable or
nonrenewable.

C. Standard(s): 4.ESS.2 Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels
are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.
II. Management Plan-
● Time:
○ A.S: desks, 5 mins
○ Mini Lesson: desks, 10 mins
○ Activity: around the room/floor, 15 mins
○ Assessment matching: desks, 7 mins
○ Closure: cool down corner, 5 mins
● Materials:
○ 6 types macaroni noodles
○ tarp
○ mining buckets
○ card sorts

III. Anticipatory Set-

● Students will complete a word sort individually of a “Guess
Who” game to match each natural resource with its appropriate
description. Be sure to cut out each card and mix them up.
● “Ok 4th grade as we get started today, we are going to complete
a Guess Who word sort activity! Your job is to take all these
words and all these definitions and match them however you see
fit. When you are finished talk with your shoulder partner about
how you sorted the words and why.”
● Give students 5 minutes to sort and discuss, ask for a couple
students to share

1
IV. Purpose: ​“Today, we are learning about our natural resources that may or may not be
renewable. This is important because we need to learn how our earth works to provide
for us and how we can work together to keep our earth healthy!”

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

V. Adaptation to Individual Differences and Diverse Learners​-

● For all lessons it is important to be aware of all students and their need for stimulation,
dopamine, and the ability to work in their best environment. For this specific reason I
am trying to limit the amount of time spent at desks so students are active for the
majority of the lesson, including the get up and “mine” during the activity.
● For students who may struggle with attention, I will continuously add in small brain
breaks, students will be expected to treat brain breaks and manipulatives as tools and
time to reset, these expectations will be communicated.
● For ELL students, I will create a powerpoint of the directions and steps of the lesson
translated into their 1st language below. They will receive all worksheets and cards
and questions in english and native language simultaneously. I will also pair them
with a bilingual student if I have one available in the room and do continuous check
ins.
● For students who need specified step by step instruction I will provide a schedule
written on the board of what tasks we are going to accomplish and in what order.

VI. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

● Begin by introducing natural resources, nonrenewable and renewable, the difference
between the 2 must be understood.
● “​Renewable resources are resources that can be replaced or “renewed” or even called
“new again” because of the prefix “re-” on ​re​newable. These are natural and can be
used over and over again without being used up. These are things such as wind, the sun,
and water. Then as we look at nonrenewable, we first break down the word and talk
about the prefix non- means “not.” That means they are not renewable. These are things
we call fossil fuels which can be things like oil, coal, and gas. Here is a chart that helps
us better classify what sources of energy we use are renewable or nonrenewable.
Remember if it is renewable it means we can use it over and over again and keep
creating, if it is nonrenewable then once we use it it's gone!”

2
● “We want to be asking ourselves the question of what resources are nonrenewable or
renewable and why might they be categorized as such? We are now going to become
miners ourselves of natural resources! You will be split up
into 6 different groups, and receive a notecard. Attached to
this card you will see a type of noodle which represents some
of our nonrenewable and renewable resources. Your mission
is as a miner you will go up to our caves (tarp with mixed
noodles on the ground) and mine as many pieces of your
resource as you can in 30 seconds. The challenge is that there
may be other groups competing against you for the same
resource! Depending on what resource it is you're collecting
it may or may not replenish very quickly. So, let’s get started,
first you must give your team a company name and I will
write it on the board to keep track of your mining!”
● At this time the teacher will pour each of the different types of
noodles onto the tarp. As students go up and “mine” for
noodles depending on what they represent the teacher can
refill some of the resources. For example, the noodles
representing coal, gas, or oil(petroleum) will not be
replenished to represent it as a nonrenewable resource. The noodles representing
resources like solar, water, and wind, be sure to continue dumping more and more
noodles during each round to represent renewable resources.

3
 ● Once supplies have dwindled and the only students being able to collect are those that are
collecting renewable resources, then tally up from each “company” how many total
resources they harvested.
“What do you guys notice about each of the resources and numbers that each group had
collected? Discuss in your companys why you collected the amount you did.” *Give
students 2 minutes to discuss, take answers*
● “As many of you have come to notice the reasoning some groups had so many more
resources collected is because they kept getting replenished! As I poured more noodles
into the pile it gave our groups mining for our resources like solar, water, adn wind
power the advantage to harvest more because these sources
were RENEWING! For our groups mining coal, and oil or
petroleum, and gas, as you began to harvest your resources
they got fewer and fewer because these sources were NOT
RENEWING! This activity represents the way we get our
energy today. While we do have many opportunities to use
resources that work together to help us create a healthy
environment, we also have resources that are being used all
too quickly. It is up to us to protect our earth and find ways
together to use our resources more efficiently! Now we are
going to revisit our guess who cards we tried to sort in the
beginning. Once you have matched the definitions you will also
sort our terms into renewable and nonrenewable columns.
When you are finished raise your hand and I will come over
and check!”

VIII. Review learning outcomes / Closure

“4th grade what an amazing job you did today at mining! As we wrap
up today I have an important question for you to be thinking about. Turn to your shoulder
partner and discuss why it is important that we conserve and use our energy wisely?
After that I want you to brainstorm one thing we could all do that would help us together
to take a step in saving our planet!”
*Allow students 4 minutes to discuss and share*

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

● Students will be assessed informally during activity of decision making skills of what is
happening to the resources
● Students will be assessed formally by completing the guess who matching and then string
cards into renewable and nonrenewable categories independently.
● Students will be informally assessed by ability to come up with ways to conserve energy
and do better at using resources.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

(CAEP K-6 3.b)
1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?

4
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
7. How will you ensure students understand that nonrenewable means once they are gone
they don’t come back?
8. What will you do for students who are following along in an activity with a group and not
participating?
9. What will you do for students who do not complete word sort independently?