Lesson Plan #5: Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Energy

Subject Areas: Science & Language Arts
Grade Level: Grade 6 to 8
Unit Title: Energy & Earth’s Resources
Lesson Title: Renewable vs. Non-renewable Energy

Teaching Standards:

• California Science Standard, Grade 6
• Resources: Sources of energy and materials differ in amounts, distribution, usefulness, and the time required for their formation. As a basis for understanding this concept:
• 6.a - Students know the utility of energy sources is determined by factors that are involved in converting these sources to useful forms and the consequences of the conversion process.
• 6.b. - Students know different natural energy and material resources, including air, soil, rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests, and know how to classify them as renewable or nonrenewable
• National Language Arts Standards, Grades 6 to 8
• Standard 7 - Students gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources.
• Standard 8 -Students use a variety of technological and information resources to create and communicate knowledge.

Performance Objectives:

Upon completion of this lesson, the student will be able to...

• Identify and differentiate between renewable and non-renewable resources
• Write a research paper on a particular resource using a variety of sources

Materials:

• Books:
• Drummond, A. (2011). Energy Island: How one community harnessed the wind and changed their world. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-32184-0
• Overhead projector
• Pictures of different resources (renewable and non-renewable), how they are gathered, and their benefits or detriments to the environment.
• Pictures of different ways in which we utilize energy (such as cars, lights, and machines)

References:

The components included in this lesson plan were modified from the lesson plan “Natural Resources: Renewable vs. Nonrenewable” by Gaucin retrieved August 2, 2011 from LessonPlansPage.com.

Preparation

• Read Energy Island (2011) to the class in order to focus the student’s attention on renewable and non-renewable resources.

Presentation

• Discuss and define what natural resources, renewable resources, and non-renewable resources are.
• Discuss as a class or in small groups how and where students use these resources in their daily lives.
• What would happen if the resource ran out?
• Discuss some of the ways that the most common resources are created, harvested, and converted for human consumption.

Application:

• On the overhead, draw one column titled “Renewable” and one titled “Non-renewable”
• Divide the class into two groups.  Have the groups alternate naming different resources.  Then have the groups alternate identifying those resources (and some extras provided by the teacher) as being renewable or non-renewable.
• Give the students a point for each right answer to turn this into a quick game

Evaluation:

• Evaluate how well the class was able to recall and identify the resources presented during the discussion and in the book.
• Evaluate how well students were able to identify in what ways they use resources in their daily lives and what effects on the environment or future they have.

Closure & Assigned Student Work:

• Resource Research Paper
• Each student will research and write about a particular resource which:
• identifies that resource as being renewable or non-renewable and why;
• summarizes how that resource is gathered, manufactured and used;
• benefits or detriments of using this resource;
• and what continued use of this resource could mean to Earth’s future
• Students will locate and use at least one source of information from the Internet, one from a book, and one from a magazine or journal.