a group of 17 metallic elements that are essential to modern technologies but challenging to extract and refine

the remaining extractable amount of resources, such as minerals or energy sources

metallic elements with high density, atomic weight or atomic number, many are known for their toxicity

Rare earth materials

Geography

Natural resources: The things we use

Energy use around the world

Energy in the UK

Windfarms: Decision making exercise

Fish resources

Sustainable fishing

Food resources

A solution: genetically modified crops

The future: hydroponics and aquaponics

The palm oil dilemma

Consumption and climate change

This unit teaches pupils about the growing demand for natural resources and the different renewable and non-renewable ways humans try to meet their needs. Pupils will learn the impact of overexploitation and some of the ways natural resource exploitation can be managed.

Natural resources: Can Earth meet our needs?

remaining extractable amount of a resource

Match the keywords with their definitions.

What are rare earth materials mainly used for?

Why are rare earth materials hard to extract?

Why are rare earth materials often wrongly assumed to be rare?

a resource that can be naturally replaced

using resources in a way that doesn’t cause harm

Resources are limited and not shared equally.

What is the main challenge of meeting Earth's resource needs?

meeting current needs without harming the future

Some resources can’t be reused or reduced easily.

Why can’t we rely only on using less to solve the resource problem?

Starter Quiz