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Grades 4-6: When they're gone, they're gone
Students will learn about nonrenewable natural resources by participating in a simulated international competition for resources.
Science Learning Outcomes:
Grade 4 - #14, #15, #17
Grade 6 - # 4, #17
Materials: 400 red craft beads, 104 blue beads, 31 pink, 12 green, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 purple, 1 clear; 5-7 plastic cups, writing materials
Vocabulary: conservation, natural resources, nonrenewable resources, renewable resources, recycling, solid waste, industrialization
Procedures:
- Discuss consumption of natural resources and the waste produced from using products, and the difference between renewable and nonrenewable natural resources and have students brainstorm resources in each category.
- Explain the activity: The colored beads represent different nonrenewable resources. The total number of beads represents the amount of minerals that exist in the world; however, it does not represent the ease of extraction or its potential availability.
- Reproduce the following as a transparencies, handout, or on the board.
| Color |
# of beads |
Finite resource |
1987 Estimates of global reserves |
| Red |
400 |
Iron in ore |
98.0 Billion ST |
| Blue |
104 |
Bauxite (aluminum ore) |
23.2 Billion MT |
| Pink |
31 |
Chromium |
7.5 Billion ST |
| Green |
12 |
Copper |
566.0 Million MT |
| Orange |
1 |
Lead |
142.0 Million MT |
| Yellow |
1 |
Tin |
4.3 Million MT |
| Purple |
1 |
Silver |
10.8 Billion Troy Ounces |
| Clear |
1 |
Platinum |
2.1 Billion Troy Ounces |
ST= Short Tom of 2,000 pounds; MT= Metric Ton of 2,200 pounds
- Hide the beads throughout the classroom in easy and difficult places to find.
- Divide the students into teams representing countries. The size of the group will vary depending upon that countries exploration abilities. A group of 6 represents the USA and Russia. 4 - Europe. 3 - Japan, 2 - South Africa. 1 - Malaysia, etc... Each team gets a plastic cup for their bead resources.
- Give teams two minutes to search for resources. After the exploration, have the students record the number and color of beads in their cup.
- Repeat the search for one minute and again have students record their search results. These can be compared with the relative figures on the chart.
- Share the figures of all the countries and discuss the difficulties in finding resource during the exploration periods. Competition should have been more intense during the second exploration because the teams were competing for fewer resources.
Time: two to four class periods
Conclusion:
- Discuss real life examples of countries competing for resources such as oil or gold.
- Discuss how natural resources are eventually thrown away in the form of products which people discard. These natural resources end up in our landfills.
- Questions for students: How can the students extend the life of nonrenewable resources? What are the advantages of extending the life of resources?
Followup: Have the students research and report on methods, products that conserve nonrenewable resourcesm, or encourages the use of renewable resources.
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