Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Resources

4th Grade ScienceEnergy3 pages

About this worksheet

A science museum has lost the labels for its new energy hall, and 4th grade students put them back over three pages. The word bank holds fourteen sources, among them uranium, propane, geothermal heat, wood from trees and corn ethanol. Students write each one under Renewable or Nonrenewable. Then they name the source that was hardest to place and add a new one of their own to each column. The key sorts eight renewable and six nonrenewable sources and adds a teacher note on the tricky items. It covers the natural-resources part of NGSS 4-ESS3-1.

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Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Resources: Energy - page 1

Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Resources: Energy - page 2

Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Resources: Energy - page 3

Curriculum objectives covered

4-ESS3-1

“Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment.”

Question 1 asks where each fuel comes from and whether nature can replace it, and question 3 asks students to justify two sources of their own.

What's inside this worksheet

Exhibit Crate Word Bank

Fourteen source cards under a box that defines renewable and nonrenewable. Ocean waves and ocean tides are separate cards.

Museum display chart

Students copy every card into a two-column chart with eight lines on each side.

Think Like a Scientist

Students explain which source was hardest to place, then add one new energy resource or fuel to each category and say why it fits.

Answers

The finished sort, a note on wood, corn ethanol and uranium, and sample additions such as biodiesel, biogas, kerosene and tar sands.

How teachers use it

Before the sort

Read the Remember box aloud, then ask where wood from trees should go. It is renewable only while new trees get planted, and that idea unlocks corn ethanol too.

Partner talk

Have pairs compare their answers to question 2. Uranium and corn ethanol usually split the room, so let both sides argue before you show the key.

Exit ticket

Collect question 3 on its own. A student who puts gasoline under renewable has not yet linked it to crude oil.

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