Students who demonstrate understanding can: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on how these resources are limited and typically non-renewable, and how their distributions are significantly changing as a result of removal by humans. Examples of uneven distributions of resources as a result of past processes include but are not limited to petroleum (locations of the burial of organic marine sediments and subsequent geologic traps), metal ores (locations of past volcanic and hydrothermal activity associated with subduction zones), and soil (locations of active weathering and/or deposition of rock).
Official wording from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the NGSS were involved in the production of this page, and they do not endorse it. View on nextgenscience.org
Oil lies under some deserts and not others, copper is concentrated in certain mountain belts, and some towns sit on huge underground aquifers while others truck in water. Students construct explanations, using evidence, for why these resources are found where they are. The answer is always a story of geoscience processes acting in particular places over long periods.
Petroleum and natural gas formed from the remains of tiny marine organisms buried in sediment, slowly heated and pressured, and then trapped beneath impermeable rock. Many metal ores were concentrated by hot fluids around ancient volcanoes and subduction zones. Fertile soils build up where rock weathers actively or where rivers deposit sediment. Groundwater collects in porous, permeable rock layers. Because these processes take thousands to millions of years, the resources are limited and mostly non-renewable on human time scales.
Students also consider how human extraction is changing where resources remain, as wells run dry and ore bodies are mined out.
Most petroleum formed from microscopic marine organisms such as plankton, buried in ocean sediments, not from dinosaur bodies.
Most groundwater fills tiny spaces between grains and in cracks of rock, like water in a sponge, rather than flowing in open rivers.
Resources are concentrated only where specific processes happened, which is why they are scarce in many places.
Formation takes millions of years, while extraction happens in decades, so supplies are effectively limited.
An oil field is found beneath a desert, in a layer of sandstone capped by shale. The rock layers above contain fossils of marine organisms. Explain how this oil deposit formed.
Answer: Buried remains of ancient marine organisms were changed into oil by heat and pressure, and the oil collected in porous sandstone trapped beneath impermeable shale.
Give students maps of oil fields, metal mines and aquifers alongside maps of past seas, volcanic belts and rock types, and ask them to find the connections. A clear cup of gravel and sand with water poured in models an aquifer; adding a clay layer shows how impermeable rock traps fluids.
Assessment items often supply a map or cross-section and ask students to explain why a resource is located where it is, citing a geologic process.
Original questions written for this standard. Choose an option or type your answer, then press Check. Every question has a worked explanation.
Answer: D) Tiny marine organisms buried in sediment
Plankton and other small organisms buried on ancient seafloors were slowly changed into oil and gas.
Answer: A) Shale is impermeable, so it traps oil below it
Oil rises through porous rock until it meets an impermeable layer that traps it.
Answer: B) Hot fluids around past volcanic activity
Hot, mineral-rich fluids near volcanoes and subduction zones concentrated metals into ores.
Answer: aquifer (also accepted: an aquifer)
An aquifer is porous, permeable rock or sediment holding usable groundwater.
Answer: D) They form over millions of years
They form far more slowly than we use them, so supplies cannot be replaced on human time scales.
Answer: oil (also accepted: coal, natural gas, petroleum, gas)
Coal, oil and natural gas are fossil fuels formed from ancient organic material.
Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
A full lesson with slides, activities and an exit ticket on why earth's resources are unevenly spread, pitched to grades 6-8 and editable in PowerPoint or Google Slides.
Make a lesson βA printable, differentiated worksheet on MS-ESS3-1 with an answer key, ready in about a minute.
Make a worksheet βTurn why earth's resources are unevenly spread into a quiz students answer online that marks itself, with a class summary for you.
Build a test βMineral, energy and groundwater resources, including petroleum, metal ores and soil, and why each is distributed unevenly.
Students consider how resources are limited and how their distribution is changing as humans remove them.