Question

cultural factors that impact natural resources

Answer 1

Although we often take it for granted, the planet we live on is awash with natural resources. Some of these resources are rather obvious: coal, oil, plants, animals, and rocks. Some are not so obvious: renewable energy resources, the shape of the land, precious metals, and the soil itself. Here is a list of natural resources you could reference:

Non-renewable Natural Resources Renewable Natural Resources Other Natural Resources
Coal Wind Land topography
Oil Water Hydropower potential
Natural Gas Soil Tourist attractions (beaches etc.)
Nuclear Materials Forests Climate
Metal Ores Animals Sunlight
Minerals Biofuel Geothermal potential
Rocks Tidal power potential
Gems
Students need to know about all of these things, and if we do it through fun activities, we can keep them engaged throughout the process.

Resources Mind Map
There are so many natural resources that it's hard to keep track of them all. We can provide students with a diagram listing all the natural resources they need to know about, and putting them into categories. However, a better way might be to allow students to categorize natural resources themselves. There are many different ways you could categorize the same items.

For this activity, have students create an attractive mini poster showing a mind map of how they imagine the resources, categorized in whatever way makes sense to them. Students can even share the ideas with the rest of the class, in case someone else's idea seems more helpful.

This activity can be used as an introduction, by having students think of resources themselves, or purely as a categorization and memorization activity, by providing them with a list first. In the former case, students may think of specific examples of resources, like stating 'salt' instead of just 'minerals.' This is fine, as long as the category 'minerals' is emphasized during the discussion.

Students might categorize natural resources by what kind of ecosystem or biome they're found in, by whether they're alive or inanimate, by how valuable those resources are, by what kinds of material they're made of, or something different altogether.

Renewable Energy Presentations
One way to introduce students to renewable energy resources is to have them research a particular type of renewable energy generation. Here are some examples:

Hydroelectric power
Tidal & wave power
Wind power
Solar power
Solar heating
Geothermal energy
Hydrogen & fuel cells
Biofuels
Students can be separated into groups, and each group can be given a different type of renewable energy to research. Then each group can present their findings to the class. This can be done through a reg

Answer 2

Culture and resource use – environmental worldviews, attitudes, values and beliefs; factors influencing their development; how they can influence natural resource use and management; potential for conflict.