Examples include minerals, fresh water, energy, and scenery. The class visits a local resource site. The teacher provides a variety of learning resources to develop students' knowledge of the techniques used to extract and process these resources. Students can evaluate why some methods are used in some circumstances and not in others. Students could also develop a presentation illustrating how these methods have changed over time.
Students collect information from a variety of sources and debate the pros and cons of the issue.
Discussions could include perspectives of First Nations, local jobs, environmental quality, living resources, or politics. Students could write letters communicating the class results to key individuals in the debate. Students investigate ways of lessening the impact of resource extraction through development of conservation, recycling, and reclamation technologies. Some of these strategies can be implemented at home and at school. Students could discuss the importance of these strategies in relation to the resource being renewable or non-renewable.