Big Idea: Resources are a critical aspect in determining where and how people live.

The Essential Question: What causes a person or a group of people to need resources and how can they be fairly distributed?

The Challenge: After determining the collective resources of your group, identify the resources needed by another group of people and create a plan for acquiring and fairly distributing the needed resources.

Guiding Questions (Student generated - Following are some suggestions if they are having trouble generating their own.)
1. What are the resources in your community?
2. Do the natural resources in your community affect the way you live?

Guiding Activities
1. Determine the natural resources in your community and state. In groups of two or three students will come up with a definition for resources. Then they will brainstorm everything they know about resources in their area and how they influence their lives. Ideas will be posted in the room
2. Research using Internet, textbooks, and other sources to determine what resources are. Check the list of resources your group came up with. Add new resources and cross out any items that are not resources. Use technology to present findings to the class.
3. Find the resources in your community. Students will need to come with ways to answer this. I will guide the groups that are having trouble. Use technology to present finding to the class. Flip cameras and other recording devices may be used if students want to interview people in the community.
4. Determine how the resources in the community influence the way people live. Do they make life better or make it worse?


Possible Materials and Resources
· Technology Tools
o Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines
o Power Library
o Wikispaces - Classroom wiki
o Microsoft Office
o Interwrite Board and Pad
· Public and School Libraries
· Chamber of Commerce
· Social Studies Textbook
· Science Textbook
· Possible Internet Sites

Pennsylvania Standards
Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources
· Identify needs of people
· Identify products derived from natural resources.
· Know that raw materials come from natural resources.
· Know that some natural resources have limited life spans.
· Examine the renewability of resources.
· Explain natural resource distribution.

Humans and the Environment
· Explain how a dynamically changing environment provides for sustainability of living systems.
· Identify several ways that people use natural resources.
· Identify how regional natural resources influence what people use.
· Explain how people use natural resources in their environment.
· Locate and identify natural resources in communities.
· Compare and contrast how people use natural resources throughout the world.
· Explain how people use natural resources.