LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Your Name: Samuel Moncayo

Title of Lesson: Depletion of Natural Resources
Grade: 4th
STANDARDS

(PO 1.).Describe how natural events and human activities have positive and negative
impacts on environments (e.g., fire, floods, pollution, dams)

(4.W.2) Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and
information clearly.
LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW

In this lesson students will understand what happens to resources when they are depleted.
Students will complete an activity in which they will be collecting different resources
(represented by pasta) in their assigned groups in 6 different trials. They will graph their
collected data as a bar graph and see how the resources have decreased in quantity. They
will also discuss in groups the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources.
This lesson is being taught to give students insight about the decisions they make and other
people make in relation to how our resources are used. It is important for students to
understand that earths resources are valuable and need to be consumed wisely so they do
not become depleted.
OBJECTIVES

SWBAT explain how the effects of over-consumption of natural resources effect a

population in a society through the process of collecting and analyzing results from
a mining activity.

SWBAT create an informative text that supports their ideas and values of the
consumption of natural resources.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
What measures will you use to know if you students met the objectives?
During the lesson the students will have to write a strong paragraph that discusses their
ideas about these questions: what could possibly happen to the environment if all the
natural resources are depleted? What can potentially happen to us if there are no more
resources left to use due to over consumption? What did you notice as time went on and
there were less and less minerals (noodles) but more and more people trying to consume
them, what do you think the people would do for those limited resources? Explain some
effects of over-consumption using ideas and concepts from this activity.

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE
Prior to this lesson students will have to know what renewable and nonrenewable resources
are and how they affect our world. Students will be given the chance to remember and help
each other define what they are during the lesson. Students will also need to remember the
structure for writing and how to write complete sentences.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

MATERIALS
5 Different types of pasta varying in shape and size
1 Large bed-sheet
Stopwatch
Mining Natural Resources student page (pg. 41) (one per student)
5 Large Poster Paper sheets
Markers
Pencils
VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS

1. Depletion - reduction in the number or quantity of something.

2. Natural Resources - Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and
fertile land that occur in nature can be used for economic gain
3. Extraction - the action of taking out something, especially using effort or force.
4. Non- Renewable resources - a natural resource that cannot be re-made or re-grown
at a scale comparable to its consumption.
5. Renewable resources - is a resource which is replaced naturally and can be used
again
6. Pollution- the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or
thing that has harmful or poisonous effects
TEACHING PROCEDURES
Procedural Steps (Step by step instructions for teaching the lesson):
1. Teacher will read Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg.
2. During the story the teacher will ask engaging questions at curtain parts.
3. In the story after Walter falls asleep and sees his neighborhood covered in trash as
the students, What happened to the trash? Where does our trash go today? How
does this relate to recycling?
4. Later in the book when it gets to the picture with the smoke stacks ask the students,
What do you think this is? How does smoke effect people, animals, and/or the
environment?
5. Once the page about the fisher men collecting on fish has been read ask the students,
What happened to all the fish? How does this relate to other animals we eat? What
do we need to keep in mind when eating animals? (reproduction).
6. After the page about the Grand Canyon has been read and the picture shown to the
students ask them, Have any of you been to the Grand Canyon? How would you
feel if you got there and you could not see its beauty due to fog?

7. After the last page has been read ask the students, What made Walter choose a tree
as a birthday present? What made him change his mind about the environment?
How has this book impacted your view on the earths resources?
8. The teacher will put the class into 5 groups. Teacher will say, Each group is a
country looking for a different type of pasta. Each type of pasta stands for a nonrenewable resource. We are going to learn about use of non-renewable resources by
collecting them for our different countries.
9. Teacher will put the different kind of pastas on the board, and assign groups and
resources to each type of pasta.
10. Then, the teacher will pass out a worksheet. Teacher will say, We will collect pasta
in different trials (on worksheet). Each trial will last for 24 seconds and will stand
for one generation of people in the country. After each trial, which is a generation,
you will record how much of your resource you have collected for that generation.
Are you ready? Lets go! Choose who you want to go for generation, or trial, one.
Carry out all the trials. Make sure no one tackles the others for the resources.
11. The teacher will go over the worksheet with the class relating the pasta activity.
Teacher will ask questions such as: As each generation went on what did you notice
about the amount of pasta you could mine? What does this say about non-renewable
resources?
12. The teacher will explain (renewable resources) and talk about the first activity.
13. The teacher will then ask questions. What did we notice about the first trial?
Does it make it easier that we all go after our own resource? Once we have
discussed, the teacher will bring up the topic of renewable resources. The teacher
will ask for students to talk in their groups about examples of renewable resources.
14. Then the teacher will ask: What if we were using renewable resources instead of
non-renewable? If we had renewable resources available during the activity, would
you grab certain items? What if we all went after the same resources? How
would the data look if we collected renewable resources?
15. Teacher will discuss the last part of the lesson. This is a writing portion about what
the students have learned from this activity. The teacher will explain expectations of
the writing assessment.
16. Finally the students will write a strong paragraph that discusses their ideas about
these questions: what could possibly happen to the environment if all the natural
resources are depleted? What can potentially happen to us if there are no more
resources left to use due to over consumption? What did you notice as time went on
and there were less and less minerals (noodles) but more and more people trying to
consume them, what do you think the people would do for those limited resources?
Explain some effects of over-consumption using ideas and concepts from this
activity
RESOURCES
Anne Royce, C., Morgan, E., & Ansberry, K. (2012). Chapter 8:Taking Note of Natural
Resources. In Teaching Science Through Trade Books. Arlington, Virginia:
NSTApress.

WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION

During my lesson the students will be using Future Thinking for the students are thinking
about the consequences of utilizing all the natural resources and their effect it will have on
the future. Using Futures Thinking the students will provide examples, ideas, and
explanations for what he world will be like if there are no more nonrenewable resources
left. They will evaluative the consequences of such an event on the world in small scale and
being to formulate ideas about the future and how important it is to find new renewable
resources for the world to find its source of energy. Utilizing Futures Thinking will help
inspire students to be able to think critically about their actions of today and the impact
they will have on the future.