Natural Resources Lesson Plan: Earth and Human Activity

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Natural Resources Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Natural Resources, and supports the standard of describing that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What items does your school recycle? Why do they recycle these items?
  • Why do you think it’s important to recycle?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Natural Resources topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Natural Resources Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND 

Students express what they learned about natural resources while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a PSA about natural resources that answers this question: How can people conserve non-renewable resources?
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying examples of natural resources as renewable or nonrenewable, then explain consequences of using each.
  • Creative Coding: Code a learning game challenging players to sort natural resources into self-selected categories, such as renewable and nonrenewable.

More to Explore 

Sortify: Natural Resources: ​​This game challenges players to sort resources by attributes, such as nonrenewable, recyclable, and more.  

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of how humans affect natural resources with these topics: Fossil Fuels, Air Pollution, and Water Pollution.

Teacher Support Resources:

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, BrainPOP, Climate Change, Energy, Lesson Plan, Natural Resources, Science, Teacher Resources