Design for Learning

Instructor: Autumn Combs

Area: Science

Title: Loving Our Environment

Date: Day 1

Grade Level: 3rd

Estimated Time: 50 min

Standards Connection:
Describe ways to sustain natural resources, including recycling, reusing, conserving, and
protecting the environment.
Recognizing the impact of society on human health and environmental conditions
Learning Goals:
When given a quick write, students will list three renewable and three non-renewable resources
found in our environment listing at least 5 out of 6 correctly.
Evaluation of Learning Goal:
Students will be given a quick write to complete. They will be expected to list three renewable
resources and three nonrenewable resources. To be considered proficient students must list at
least five out of six correct total. Students will have five minutes to complete the assignment.
Engagement:
Teacher will bring in a bag with mystery items. Today I have a bag of goodies to share with you.
As I show the items to you, I want you to think about how the items are connected. Teacher will
try to build suspense. You are going to be like detectives. You must look at everything and figure
out how all the pieces fit together. Teacher will take the bag around to different students to let
them choose an item out of the bag. The bag should have a bottle of water, a plant, a picture of
coal, and a picture of petroleum. Student ______ I want you to pull something out of my bag.
Dont peak! Give student time to pull item out. A plant! Well thats weird. Lets see what else we
have. Ask another student to pull an item out of the bag. Hmm A picture of coal That is
strange. What does a plant and a picture of coal have in common? Lets keep looking! Ask
another student to pull something else out of the bag. A bottle of water. Ok, Ill put this with the
other things that we have gotten out so far. There is one more thing in here. Student _____, your
turn. Let student pull the last item from the bag. A picture of petroleum. Teacher should put all
four items in the front of the classroom so that all the students can see them. Alright detectives,
talk to your group. How do you think these items are connected? Allow time for the students to
talk in their groups. Teacher should walk around the room, observing and taking notes of
students conversations. Back to me. Wait for students to be quiet. Now I heard some interesting
ideas and conversations. ________, what did you share with your group about how these items
may be connected? Listen to students ideas and ensure that students are being respectful by
listening to their classmate. All of these things are found in the earth somewhere? Ok. Can you

elaborate on that for me? Allow think time for student. Ok so you are saying that I can find
water, plants, petroleum, and coal from the Earth? I see some people are agreeing with you
about that idea. We are going to talk more about this idea today!
Learning Design:
Teaching
I am going to keep these items up here so that you can see them, but we are going to go ahead
and move on. Today we are going to talk about nature and the world around us. I want to use
science language though so I am going to call everything around us like nature, (or the air,
water, and plants) our environment. Our environment is made up of those things that I just
mentioned, air, water, plants, and nature! Show the students the first slide of the google
presentation. We are going to talk about the different things that make up the environment today.
Pay close attention because by the end of the lesson you should be able to look at these items
that were in our mystery bag and tell me if they fall into a certain category or not. Lets get
started. Move on to the next slide. This slide will talk about natural resources. Our environment
is made up of natural resources such as plants, water, dirt, coal, and petroleum. Refer to the
mystery bag items as you mention them. These natural resources come from the earth and are
useful to people. Can you think of some natural resources that we havent already talked about?
Talk with your group. Teacher should walk around the classroom listening to conversation and
taking notes. Back to me. If students are still not quiet, the teacher will say, 3-2-1 youre done.
Call on student that you heard mentioning natural resources. ______, what did you and your
group talk about? What were some natural resources that you all came up with? Listen to
answers. So you think that rocks are natural resources. Good. ______, did your group have
another one? The sun? Wow! That is a great resource. We can use the sun for many different
things. These are all examples of natural resources. These natural resources can be divided into
two different categories. First we have renewable resources. Change the slide. Renewable
resources are natural resources (or resources that we find in nature) that are replaced by nature
quickly. An example of a renewable resource would be plants. Teacher should point to the picture
of plants on the slide as she talks about them being renewable resources. If we take them and use
them in medicines, they will grow back soon and we will be able to use them again. Talk with
your group about another possible renewable resource. Allow time for talking. Go to J, P, and L
during this time and ask the question Is there a way that a renewable resource could disappear?
This question will push them to think about the fact that even though the resources are
renewable, humans can overuse them. Call on student. ______, what did you and your partner
talk about? Water? Water is another renewable resource. Great job. Teacher should point out the
picture of water on the slide. Is there another example that someone would like to share? Give
students time to raise their hands and think about what they want to say. Call on student that has
not had a chance to share yet. _______, what is another renewable resource that you and your
group talked about? Give time for answer. You all said that animals are renewable resources.
Why are they renewable resources? Look around the room to see who is answering and who
needs to be redirected to focus on the lesson. Call on student at random. _______, why would
animals be considered renewable resources? Give think time. They are resources because

humans can use them for things like clothes, and they are renewable because they have babies
and we continue to have animals. Good explanation. Now, we will talk about non-renewable
resources. Change the slide. Non-renewable resources are resources that take thousands of
years, or a really long time, to be replaced. There is a limit to these resources. An example of a
non-renewable resource would be coal. Like in our mystery bag. If we are not careful, we could
use all of these resources up because they take so long to be created. Can you and your group
think of another non-renewable resource? Give time to talk. Teacher should walk around as
groups discuss so that she can take notes and hear what each group is thinking. Call on student to
share. ____, what did your group think of? Good. You are right. Petroleum is a non-renewable
resource. Yall researched and learned about petroleum not too long ago didnt you? That is a
great example of a non-renewable resource. Ms. Combs had a picture of petroleum in our
mystery bag at the beginning of the lesson, remember? Whose group came up with another
example of a non-renewable resource? Look for raised hands. Try to make sure that all students
are participating and paying attention. Throughout lesson, if a student has their head down, ask
the class to remember that good listening means that they are sitting up and following the
speaker with their eyes. Call on student that has not had a chance to share yet. _____, what did
your group come up with as another example of a non-renewable resource? Yes, gold would be
considered a non-renewable resource. Good example!
Practice:
Now that we have thought of some examples as a group, you will have an opportunity to work
with a partner to learn some more about renewable and non-renewable natural resources.
Students will be given a sorting activity to work on as a group. I have activity cards for you to
work on. You will work with your group. You and your group should work together to sort these
pieces in the correct columns on the t-chart. Please remember that this requires teamwork. Ms.
Combs expects each person to participate and contribute to their groups work. If I were you, I
would pass out the cards and let each person have a chance to place at least one card. Teacher
should put the t-chart on the Light-smith for the class to see. This column says renewable
resources and this one says non-renewable resources. Teacher should take one of the cards from
the bag. You and your group will choose one card from the bag. Read what it says. Mine says
energy from the sun. Now, my group and I will need to talk about whether this is a renewable
resource or if it is a non-renewable resource. When you decide, you place it in that column.
Demonstrate this for the students. Once you have filled your t-chart, raise your hand and I will
come by and look at it and give you further instructions. Pass out baggies of cards and t-chart
papers to students. Walk the room as they work on the sorting activity. Check for misconceptions
that students may have. Once the majority of the class has finished call their attention back to the
front. Ok, now that you and your group have worked on this and found the spot for most of your
pieces, we are going to go over this together. Teacher should work on the t-chart on the Lightsmith. Put the answers in the correct columns. This is what your chart should look like. Compare
yours to mine and see what you may have been confused about. If there is one that you have a
question about, raise your hand and we will talk about it. Allow time for students to check their
chart. If there are questions, answer them. If not, move on. Once you have your pieces in the
correct area of the chart, I want you to copy it onto your copy of the chart so that you can look

back at it later if you need. Allow time for students to copy the chart into notebooks. Once you
are finished copying it, I want you to glue the chart into your social science notebook. I will
bring around a quick write for you to complete when I see that you have glued your page in and
put the notebook away.
Assessment:
Wait on students to finish gluing their page in the notebook. As they finish, begin passing out the
quick write. As you finish, and I pass out the quick write, I want you to go ahead and answer the
question. Dont forget your name, number, and date. This is a quick write so it should not take
you very long to complete but remember that this is independent work so we are not talking
during this time. When you are finished turn it over on your desk and I will come to get it.

Closure:
When you turn over your test and I pick it up, I want you to go onto Starwalk and read the book
that I have assigned you. You should look for natural resources while you read. I also want you
to try to decide if they are renewable or non-renewable resources as you read. Students will get
on Starwalk as they finish to read individually and look for the items that were talked about in
the lesson.

Resources and Materials:

-

Bottle of Water
Plant
Picture of petroleum
Picture of coal
Bag
Google Slide Presentation
Computer
Projector
Clipboard with paper for notes
T-Chart
Sort Cards
Quick Write
Light-smith
Science Notebooks
Glue
Scissors
Starwalk

Extensions/Accommodations:
J and S- Their assessment will require them to circle the renewable resources from a given list.

P and L- ask questions (specified in the lesson)

Reflection:
This lesson was completed very quickly due to the time crunch that we had on this particular day.
The students were very responsive to the lesson though despite the fact that they had just
returned from PE. I think that the Google Slides presentation that I had helped to teach this
lesson. It gave students something to focus on during the lesson and appealed to my students
who need extra reinforcement of the material.
If I were to teach this lesson again in the future, I would change the way that the practice activity
was completed. I think that it would have been beneficial for my students to be able to have their
own cards that they could have glued to the t-chart. They still would be asked to work as a team,
but they would not have to write down every piece of information that was put into the different
categories. This might help to cut down on the amount of time that the practice took. One thing
to think about if the change was made is the potential time that gluing every piece would take.
Another thing that I would change is I would bring in renewable resources (during the
engagement) that were not so interdependent. The fact that plants need water was the only
relationship that my students were able to come up with without me asking probing questions.
One other thing that should be changed is the assessment for my two students with IEPs. Their
assessments had a total of 8 possible answer choices. This made it hard to grade and categorize
based on the lesson objective.
DATA: The data was very promising. Of a total of 18 students who took the formative
assessment at the end, only 2 scored a score that is considered not proficient according to the
objective. One of the two students has an IEP and did not receive help on this assessment. The
other student is a student receiving ESL and Title 1 services. Both students did fairly well but
according to the objective, should be pulled for small group re-teaching.

Replaced by nature

Take a long time to

quickly

replace

Energy from the sun

Coal

Wind

Petroleum

Plants

Natural gas

Water

Metal

Renewable Resources

Non-Renewable Resources

Chart Rubric

Renewable Resources

Non-Renewable Resources

Replaced by nature quickly Take a long time to

replace

Energy from the sun

Coal

Wind

Petroleum

Plants

Natural gas

Water

Metal

Name #:_______________________

Date:___________

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

Directions: List three examples of renewable resources and three examples of nonrenewable resources.

Renewable Resources

Name #:_______________________

Non-Renewable Resources

Date:___________

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

Directions: List three examples of renewable resources and three examples of nonrenewable resources.

Renewable Resources

Non-Renewable Resources

Name #:_______________________

Date:___________

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

Directions: Circle the examples of renewable resources.
Wind

Plastic

Oil

Trees

Petroleum

Sun

Coal

Plants

Name #:_______________________

Date:___________

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

Directions: Circle the examples of renewable resources.
Wind

Plastic

Oil

Trees

Petroleum

Sun

Coal

Plants

Name #:_______________________

Date:___________

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources Rubric

Directions: List three examples of renewable resources and three examples of nonrenewable resources.

Renewable Resources

Non-Renewable Resources

Sunlight
Plants
Animals
Water
Etc.

Coal
Petroleum
Natural Gas
Metal
Etc.

Name #:_______________________

Date:___________

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources Rubric

Directions: Circle the examples of renewable resources.
Wind

Plastic

Oil

Trees

Petroleum

Sun

Coal

Plants