Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Activities for 4th Grade Science

The Kesler Science Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources 4th Grade Complete 5E Lesson provides everything you need to teach a comprehensive, multi-day lesson on energy resources. This lesson minimizes prep time and focuses on student-led learning, allowing students to explore key concepts like renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, and conservation. The lesson includes differentiated materials and multimodal learning formats, offering flexibility for both in-person and virtual classrooms.

Using the 5E Model (Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation), students engage with the content through a variety of stations that incorporate hands-on activities, readings, videos, and research. Output stations provide opportunities for students to organize, illustrate, write, and assess their learning, while bonus stations challenge early finishers with extension activities.

With editable PowerPoints, interactive notebooks, and Spanish translations, this lesson can be customized for any classroom. The lesson also includes student-choice projects, assessments, and review activities, ensuring a dynamic learning experience that fosters deeper understanding and mastery.

The Kesler Science Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Station Lab offers 4th grade students an engaging, hands-on learning experience in earth science. With nine differentiated stations, students explore and classify Earth's renewable resources (like air, plants, water, and animals) and nonrenewable resources (including coal, oil, and natural gas), while learning the importance of conservation. The station lab materials save teachers time on prep and allow students to take charge of their own learning.

The stations include a variety of input and output activities that cater to different learning styles. Students can experiment, research, read, and watch videos to deepen their understanding of renewable and nonrenewable resources. They then apply their knowledge through organizing, illustrating, writing, and assessing their learning, with opportunities to challenge themselves with extension activities.

Designed for both in-person and virtual learning environments, this modular, student-led lab promotes independent learning. The teacher’s role is to facilitate rather than direct, ensuring a personalized, engaging experience for every student.

The Kesler Science Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Student Choice Projects allow 4th grade students to select a project that suits their preferred output style. With six student-led project options and the ability to "design your own," these flexible and dynamic projects offer creative ways for students to showcase their understanding. The included grading rubric can be adjusted for teacher, peer, or self-assessment.

Teachers can modify the rubric to meet grading needs, and the project choices provide multimodal learning experiences that cater to diverse learning styles. There are nine options, plus the "design your own" project, allowing for flexibility in how students demonstrate their knowledge. 

Differentiated for varied needs, the modified version targets students requiring extra support, while more advanced students can combine projects for added challenge. The projects can be completed with basic classroom supplies or digitally, and crafting supplies may be needed for certain hands-on activities.