Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
Every evening the lights in your town come on. Somewhere, something is being burned, spun or split to make that electricity. In the 1970s, some people warned that the world's oil would be used up before the year 2000. It wasn't. So will our energy ever run out? Your team's job: find out how long nature takes to replace each energy source, and use real data to say how much of the world's electricity comes from sources that refill.
Teams of three, with jobs that rotate after three cards: Reader (reads each card aloud), Placer (takes the card to the timeline wall) and Recorder (fills in the table).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
9 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Energy cards
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- Energy card table
- Draw the two bars
- Note to a younger student
- Exit ticket
- Energy cards
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 4 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Renewable or not
- Uses the data
- Effects on the environment
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “Will our energy ever run out?” take?
50–60 min. Group size: teams of 3.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes. Print one set of energy cards per team and cut it apart. Tape five signs along one wall, left to right: Minutes, Days to a year, Decades, Millions of years, Never (not remade on Earth). Print the student sheet for everyone.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): 4-ESS3-1. It also matches England National Curriculum, Key Stage 3 and Cambridge Primary Science and Lower Secondary Science (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “Energy card table”, “Draw the two bars”, “Note to a younger student”, “Exit ticket”, “Energy cards”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 4 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.