Cal Recycle
Conserving Natural Resources
Trying to plan an engaging elementary science unit on natural resources? Conserve your energy! This five-part series of lessons and hands-on activities has exactly what you need to teach young scholars about the importance of conservation.
Scholastic
Study Jams! Natural Resources
Use this slide show to introduce your class to some of our most useful natural resources. The text beneath the photographs differentiates between renewable and non-renewable resources. The need for conservation of resources and human...
Curated OER
Natural Resources and Ancient Cities
Students explain how the availability of natural resources has affected human settlement patterns. They recognize the interactions of human populations on environments and compare the growth of two ancient cities in relation to natural...
K12 Reader
Natural Resources
What natural resources are available in your area? Your learners can consider this question after reading a brief passage about natural and renewable resources. After reading, class members respond to five questions related to the reading.
Curated OER
The Delicate Balance - Iowa's Natural Resources
Discover the natural resources in Iowa by studying it's history. In this environmental lesson, your students will observe a topographical map of Iowa and identify where its most valuable resources are. They complete an Iowa name...
California Academy of Science
Natural Resources Bingo
Bingo isn't just a silly game, it's a great way to practice all types of skills. After reviewing that the earth is composed of natural resources, what those natural resources are, and sustainability, the class plays a game of bingo. The...
Curated OER
Musical Resources
Students complete a simulation similar to musical chairs where the chairs represent natural resources and when one is taken away, the people still stay in the game. For this natural resources lesson plan, students learn about supply,...
Indian Land Tenure Foundation
Gifts from Land and Water
With a series of fun hands-on simulations, young children can learn about conservation and natural resources. Your learners become land detectives, discussing and investigating the gifts that the land and water provide them. They then...
Curated OER
What is an Ecological Footprint?
Introduce youngsters to the term ecological footprint. Learners identify ways in which humans affect the environment. They look at the problems associated with the use of natural resources, and focus on ways to preserve natural...
Curated OER
Lemonade For Sale
2-3rd graders listen to the story, Lemonade for Sale, by Stuart J. Murphy. In the story, children produce and sell lemonade to raise money for their clubhouse, create a product, classify the resources used in production as natural...
City and County of San Francisco
I Want It! I Need It!
Discuss wants and needs with your elementary ecologists and get them to consider what would happen to our natural resources if we all got everything that we want. Learners play a card sorting game and take an ecological footprint quiz on...
Curated OER
Natural Resources: Can We Use Them Forever? Grade 2
Bright colors and animation are great ways to attract a young students attention. Students are introduced to the concepts of renewable and non-renewable resources as they pose the question, will our resources be around forever? This...
Curated OER
Wattle and Daub Using Natural Resources to Survive
Seventh graders create list of materials that family of four would need to live and survive in the forest, identify four natural resources used by Cherokee Indians to build shelter, create poster that depicts Cherokee hamlet in summer or...
Curated OER
Humans and the Environment
This PowerPoint is a straightforward list of facts about how humans impact the environment. Subjects covered are extinction, natural resources, different types of pollution, and conservation efforts. Questions are presented on some...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans
Sickle cell disease only occurs when both parents contribute the trait, and mostly in those of African descent. Where did it come from? How did it evolve? Tony Allison, a molecular biologist, noticed a connection between sickle cell and...
Channel Islands Film
Natural Resources, and Human Uses of Plants and Animals
As part of their study of the restoration projects on Santa Cruz Island, class members demonstrate their understanding of the connections among plant life, animals, and the actions of humans by crafting a model that reveals these...
Curated OER
Arkansas: A Natural State
Here is a wonderful lesson plan on natural resources found in Arkansas which is designed for kindergartners. The lesson plan could be easily adapted for any state. Some clever in-class activities, games, and a song are included in this...
Curated OER
Selecting the Tap: Water Safety
Examine water as a scarce natural resource instead of taking it for granted. Middle schoolers identify the traits of potable water, and research local water sources to determine if they are impaired or not.
Curated OER
Resources and Economic Development
Identify natural resources in the world and how they translate into economic development. In this global economy lesson, your class will utilize the Internet to view an Oregon Time Web which they research to examine the history of...
Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education
Popcorn Economics
Scarcity of resources is a fundamental economics concepts that kids need to understand. You'll use a large bag of popcorn to demonstrate this concept. Have the class come up row-by-row to fill their snack bags with popcorn. By the last...
Curated OER
Word Search
Here is a word search that has more educational value than most. After finding the 14 words that have to do with natural resources, learners must then use the words in context. They answer 14 questions on the second page of the...
Curated OER
What Is Natural?
Your junior highers will learn about which objects are natural and classify objects as abiotic or biotic. Your class will trace human products to their natural resources using matter cycles and then create their own definition of nature.
Curated OER
Sustainability
Here is an in-depth, and incredibly thorough lesson plan on sustainable agricultural practices; specifically, regarding the growth of coffee. After completing and discussing a worksheet called "Thinking About Tomorrow," groups of...
Curated OER
Forests/Natural Resource Management II
Students write about the importance of trees. In this natural resources lesson plan, students look at deforestation occurring across the globe and present what they learned to the class. As closure, all students write a poem about the...