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Texas Science Teacher Resource Hub

Free scope and sequences, TEKS breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, and engagement activities for the 2024 Texas science standards.

Chris Kesler
I'm Chris Kesler, a former award-winning Texas middle school science teacher. This is the site I wish I'd had in the classroom. One hub with TEKS breakdowns, scope and sequences, phenomenon starters, engagement ideas, and resources, all aligned to the standards you actually teach.
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🚀 Jump to Your Grade

Pick your grade level and go straight to your TEKS standards, aligned resources, and teaching tools.

All standards updated for the 2024 TEKS revision
TEKS Details | Texas Hub Module

4th Grade TEKS Standards

Click any standard to see what it means, how to teach it, where students get stuck, and aligned resources.

Matter & Properties (4.6)
4.6A Classify Matter by Physical Properties 4.6B Mixtures & Solutions 4.6C Conservation of Matter in Mixtures
Force & Motion (4.7)
4.7 Patterns of Forces & Motion
Energy (4.8)
4.8A Energy Transfer in Motion, Waves & Sound 4.8B Conductors & Insulators 4.8C Electrical Energy & Circuits
Earth & Space (4.9)
4.9A Patterns of the Seasons 4.9B Phases of the Moon
Earth's Processes (4.10)
4.10A The Water Cycle & the Sun 4.10B Weathering, Erosion & Deposition 4.10C Weather vs. Climate
Natural Resources (4.11)
4.11A Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources 4.11B Conservation, Disposal & Recycling 4.11C Rocks That Store Earth's Resources
Ecosystems (4.12)
4.12A How Producers Make Food 4.12B Food Webs & Energy Flow 4.12C Fossils & Past Environments
Organisms (4.13)
4.13A Plant Structures & Functions 4.13B Inherited & Acquired Traits
TEKS S.4.11A • Natural Resources

Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources

The Standard

"Identify and explain advantages and disadvantages of using Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources such as wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals, coal, oil, and natural gas;"

💡 What This Standard Actually Means

The Key Verb

"Identify and explain". Fourth graders are sorting resources into renewable vs. nonrenewable AND giving the pros and cons of using each one. The TEKS hands you the exact list of resources to discuss: wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals, coal, oil, and natural gas. The first five (wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals) are renewable: they come back or replace themselves over a short time. The last three (coal, oil, natural gas) are nonrenewable: they took millions of years to form and we can't make more in our lifetime. Each one has advantages (it's powerful, it's cheap, it's clean) and disadvantages (it's polluting, it runs out, it's unreliable).

Earth gives us all kinds of resources to power our lives. Some of them come back on their own. Others are gone for good once we use them up. 4.11A asks 4th graders to identify which is which and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each one. The TEKS even gives you the exact list to teach: wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals, coal, oil, and natural gas.

The five renewable resources keep coming back. The wind blows again tomorrow. Rivers keep flowing. The Sun rises every morning. Plants grow back. Animals reproduce. We can use these every day without running out, as long as we don't damage the systems that make them work. The three nonrenewable resources took millions of years to form deep underground. Coal, oil, and natural gas (often called fossil fuels) come from the remains of ancient plants and animals that got squeezed and heated under the Earth for ages. Once we burn them, they're gone. We can't make more in time for it to matter.

Every resource has trade-offs. Sunlight is clean and free, but solar panels don't make power on cloudy days or at night. Coal is powerful and cheap, but burning it pollutes the air. Wind is renewable, but a still day means no power. Oil makes the gas in cars but causes climate change when it's burned. By the end of this unit, kids should be able to look at any of the eight resources, say whether it's renewable or nonrenewable, give one good thing about using it, and give one not-so-good thing.

💬 From Chris's Classroom

If I were planning this lesson, I'd build it around a giant T-chart on butcher paper labeled RENEWABLE on one side and NONRENEWABLE on the other. Each kid gets two sticky notes: a green one for "advantage" and a yellow one for "disadvantage." Walk through the eight resources from the TEKS one at a time. For each one, kids shout out an advantage and a disadvantage and stick them in the right column. By the end of the period, the wall has a beautiful messy chart with 50+ sticky notes, two for every resource. Kids can look at the wall and see the WHOLE picture: yes, these renewable resources are great, but they have weaknesses too. And yes, those fossil fuels are powerful, but they have serious downsides. The standard says "advantages AND disadvantages" for a reason. Don't let kids leave thinking renewable is automatically perfect or fossil fuels are automatically evil. Teach the trade-offs.

⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students May Have

These are some of the most common misconceptions. Knowing what to look for can help you get ahead of them.

×

"Renewable means we can never run out"

✓

Renewable means the resource comes back on its own over a short time, like wind blowing again tomorrow or trees growing back. But that's only true if we don't damage the system. Cut down a forest faster than the trees can grow back, and even a "renewable" resource can disappear. Use water faster than rain can refill the aquifer, and the well runs dry.

×

"Coal, oil, and natural gas are the same thing"

✓

They're all called fossil fuels because they all formed from ancient living things, but they're three different resources. Coal is a black solid rock you can hold in your hand, used in power plants. Oil (petroleum) is a thick liquid that gets refined into gasoline for cars. Natural gas is a gas (mostly methane) that heats homes and stoves. All three are nonrenewable, but they look and act differently.

×

"Renewable energy is always better than nonrenewable energy"

✓

Renewable resources have advantages (they come back, they're cleaner) AND disadvantages (the wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't shine at night, dams change rivers). Nonrenewable resources have advantages (they're powerful, easy to store, work anytime) AND disadvantages (they pollute, they run out). The TEKS asks kids to weigh both sides, not just pick a winner.

×

"Sunlight isn't really a resource because nobody owns it"

✓

Sunlight is a huge resource. Solar panels turn it into electricity. Plants use it to make food (which is one of the most important resources of all). Sunlight even drives the wind and the water cycle. The TEKS specifically lists sunlight as a renewable natural resource because we use it constantly to power our lives.

📓 Teaching Resources for 4.11A

These resources are aligned to this standard.

Complete 5E Lesson
Compare Earth's Resources Complete Science Lesson
The full unit for 4.11A: differentiated station labs, editable presentations, interactive notebooks (English + Spanish), student-choice projects, and assessments covering renewable and nonrenewable natural resources including wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals, coal, oil, and natural gas. Built on the 5E model.
⏱ Best for: Full unit coverage • Multiple class periods
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Station Lab
Compare Earth's Resources Station Lab
9-station hands-on lab where 4th graders identify and explain advantages and disadvantages of using Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Input stations (Explore It!, Watch It!, Read It!, Research It!) and output stations (Organize It!, Illustrate It!, Write It!, Assess It!). Print and digital. English and Spanish.
🔬 Best for: Core instruction • 1-2 class periods
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Student Choice Projects
Compare Earth's Resources Student Choice Projects
Choice board with nine project options plus a "design your own" pathway. Students show what they know about renewable and nonrenewable resources through writing, building, illustrating, presenting, or digital formats.
🎓 Best for: Project-based assessment • 2-3 class periods
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🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 4.11A

Use these real-world phenomena to anchor your lesson. Show students the phenomenon first, let them wonder, then build toward Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources as the explanation.

🔎
Phenomenon 1

The Solar Panel That Sleeps

Show a small solar-powered toy or yard light. In direct sun, it spins, glows, or turns on. Block the sun with your hand. It stops. Walk around the room with the toy and find a sunny spot, a shady spot, and a closet. The toy works perfectly outside, weakly in the shade, and not at all in the closet. Sunlight is renewable, but it's also unpredictable.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Solar power is renewable and clean. So why couldn't we just use solar panels for everything? What's the disadvantage we just saw?"

🔎
Phenomenon 2

The Coal Lump Story

Hold up a small piece of coal (or a photo of one). Tell the kids: "This black rock used to be plants and trees about 300 million years ago." That's older than the dinosaurs. Then explain that we burn this kind of rock to make most of the electricity in Texas. The advantage is that coal is powerful and there's a lot of it underground. The disadvantage is that once we burn it, that 300-million-year-old plant is gone forever, and the burning makes pollution.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Why do we call coal 'nonrenewable' if there are still tons of it underground? What does the timeline of how it formed have to do with that?"

🔎
Phenomenon 3

The Texas Wind Farm Photo

Show a picture of a big West Texas wind farm with rows of giant white turbines. Texas leads the country in wind power. The advantages: the wind keeps blowing, no fuel cost, no pollution from the turbines. The disadvantages: the turbines are big and expensive to build, they only work when the wind is blowing, and birds sometimes fly into them. Real-world Texas resource example.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Why do we have so many wind farms in West Texas but not in East Texas? What advantages does wind power have? What disadvantages?"

💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 4.11A

01

Resource Sort with Sticky Notes

Tape two big posters to the wall: RENEWABLE and NONRENEWABLE. Each kid gets one sticky note for each of the eight TEKS resources (wind, water, sunlight, plants, animals, coal, oil, natural gas). On each sticky note they write one ADVANTAGE and one DISADVANTAGE. They post their sticky notes under the right header. The wall ends up with a chart full of evidence for both columns.

Materials: Sticky notes (8 per kid), butcher paper headers, markers
02

Resource Trading Card Game

Each pair gets a deck of 8 resource trading cards (one per TEKS resource). Each card has the resource name, a picture, and three blank lines: "Renewable or nonrenewable?" "One advantage" and "One disadvantage." Kids fill out the cards using their notes or a textbook. Then they share their decks with another pair and quiz each other.

Materials: Printed blank trading cards (8 per pair), pencils, colored pencils for the picture
03

Texas Energy Map

Project a map of Texas. Have the kids identify which kinds of resources are used in different parts of the state: wind in West Texas, oil in the Permian Basin, natural gas across the state, hydro power on rivers. Color each region of Texas a different color depending on the main resource it's known for. Real Texas data, real geography, real connection to the standard.

Materials: Texas outline maps, colored pencils, region info sheet
04

Pros and Cons Debate

Split the class in half. One side argues for renewable resources, the other for nonrenewable. Each side has to come up with at least three advantages of their resources and at least three disadvantages of the OTHER side's resources. Hold a quick "town hall" where each side shares. The point isn't to pick a winner. The point is to see that every resource has trade-offs, exactly what the TEKS verb "explain advantages and disadvantages" asks for.

Materials: Recording sheet, optional name tags for "Team Renewable" and "Team Nonrenewable"
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Year-at-a-Glance Pacing Guides

Practical, week-by-week scope and sequences for grades 4-8. These tell you what to teach and when to teach it. Updated for the 2024 TEKS.

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Free download. No email required. Updated for the 2024 TEKS with linked activities for every unit.

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