Grade 7 Geography: Natural
Resources
By: Sarah Honeyford, Candice
Lee, Stacey Robinson, Cris
Turple, and Michelle Turco
Big Ideas: Know, Do, Be
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KNOW: Students will explore the many ways that people use
natural resources, and the environmental impact of these
actions.
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DO: Students will gather, process, and communicate
information about the distribution, use and importance of natural
resources in a variety of ways
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BE: Students will acknowledge how humans’ actions can
positively or negatively affect natural resource sustainability, and
take action to better the health of the environment
Unit Guiding Questions
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What are natural resources and why are they
important in our lives?
How does demand and accessibility
determine the importance of natural
resources?
What is sustainability and how does this
relate to natural resources?
How has technology affected the process of
obtaining natural resources?
How is a country’s economy affected by the
value of their natural resources?
Integration
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Art
Drama
Geography
Language
Physical Education
Science
Assessment for Learning:
Lesson 1
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Class discussion
 What is a natural resource?
 What natural resources are found in Canada? In
other parts of the world?
 Students will brainstorm answers to these
questions in table groups and record their ideas
on chart paper. A class discussion will follow.
Teacher will use direct observation and the
brainstormed sheets to determine students’ prior
knowledge of natural resources. This information
will inform future lessons for the unit.
Lesson Sequence: 2
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Everything comes from something
 In groups, students will act in the role of a
contributing author, each group is to design
a two-page spread for a new Grade 7
geography textbook, using the information
that they researched.
Lesson Sequence: 3
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All things comes out of something
 In their same groups from the previous
lesson, students will pretend that the
publishers have asked them to make a (45) information segment on their resource
for a C-D that the publishers want to put at
the end of the textbook.
Lesson Sequence: 4 and 5
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The Chain Game: Natural Resources Equity Game
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Students will participate in a natural resources simulation game
where the object is for each group to construct as many paper
chains as possible using construction paper, tape, and scissors.
The craft supplies represent natural resources, and the chain
represents a group or country’s wealth or success.
Some groups begin the activity resource-rich, while others must
trade their resources to gain the all proper materials to construct
paper chains.
Students will then discuss their experiences in the game, and how it
relates to the real world.
A short video clip will be viewed to facilitate further discussion on
natural resource distribution, the use of technologies to extract such
resources, and their role in the world economy.
Lesson Sequence: 6
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Our use of Technology and its affect on Canada’s Seven F’s
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Students will participate in a jigsaw activity to investigate the types
of technology used to discover, extract, process, and transport
Canada’s Seven F’s (fish, fur, forestry, farming, fossil fuels,
ferrous metals, and flowing water). In their resource groups,
students will become experts on their assigned natural resource,
and share and discuss their findings to their home groups.
Students will be asked to discuss how technology has affected our
ecological footprint with regards to Canada’s Seven F’s.
Lesson 7
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Technology’s affect on our Ecological Footprint
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To apply their understanding on the impact of using technology to
discover, extract, process, and transport Canada’s natural
resources, students will participate in a class debate on the issue of
using technology with regards to Canada’s Seven F’s. Students
will argue whether or not to use more or less technology to reduce
our ecological footprint in the use of our natural resources. To put
these concepts into perspective, students will be asked to think
about how technology affects the everyday use of our natural
resources (e.g. driving cars, wearing jewelry, using computers, etc).
Lesson Sequence: 8
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What is Sustainability?
 Students will learn about sustainability and sustainable
development through the viewing of videos and participation
in think-pair-share and class discussion on the topics. This
will allow students to collaboratively create an online,
interactive concept map (re: Popplet) to help students
understand how sustainability, sustainable development and
the environment and natural resources are interrelated.
Individually, students will then inductively develop their own
definitions of sustainability to be used in the creation of a
group paper Tweet for the Classroom Twitter wall.
Lesson Sequence: 9
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Sustainability of Natural Resources
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Students will reflect on their inductive definitions of sustainability to begin
thinking about how sustainability relates to the future of natural resources.
Students will work collaboratively in groups of three to learn more about the
sustainability of one natural resource in order to create a short presentation,
involving a visual of their understanding and ideas, to present to the class.
Students will use what they have learned from class discussion and the
group presentations to reflect in their journals using the two stars and a
wish format.
Lesson 10
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Technology and Sustainability of Natural Resources
 To gain an understanding of how media is used to portray
either positive or negative views about the issue of natural
resource sustainability and technology, students will view
advertisements and videos and determine how the
companies have used media to effectively convey their
message(s). In groups, students will use this knowledge to
create their own media piece about how technology will help
or hinder the future sustainability of a natural resource.
Lesson Sequence: 11 and 12
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Uneven Distribution of Natural Resources
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Resources trade game - demonstrates connection between wealth
of natural resources and economy.
Some continents have more valuable natural resources than
others. Students take part in a hands-on and physically active
game where they race to collect as much wealth (beanie bags)
from other continents as they can within five minutes.
The Value of Canada’s Natural Resources
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Research project based on one of Canada’s natural resources and
its economic importance to Canada.
Students research the economic value of one of Canada’s natural
resources and present its impact on the Canadian economy to the
class using their choice of media presentation.
Culminating Activity
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Canadian Senate debate on the Athabasca
Oil Sands in Alberta
Small groups representing key stakeholders
of the issue, teacher acts as ‘speaker’
Research background information, formulate
opening and closing statements
Utilize visuals or other tactics to express
opinion and support main points
Consolidate learning in class discussion, do
not have to come to a decision