Resource 1: Renewable and non-renewable resources

Background information / subject knowledge for teacher

Renewable resourcesNon-renewable resources
Wood from planted trees – gum and pineWood from wild forest trees
Planted cropsWild medicine herbs if too much is taken
Meat from farm animalsThreatened wild animals
Water (if we don’t pollute it)Soil that has eroded won’t come back
Air
ENERGY RESOURCES
Water power (hydroelectricity)Coal
Wind powerOil
From the sun – solar energyPetrol and diesel – from oil
Paraffin from oil

Note: You might see how the teacher has started by accepting most of the suggested items the pupils present and has tried where possible to use their own words. This gives them confidence to add more. If the teacher rephrases everything they suggest into textbook-type language many children get discouraged – accepting and working with their actual words is very important.

You might also have noticed how the teacher has steered the attention to energy aspects – by adding in a sub-heading. Depending on where they live, pupils might also know of natural gas, which is considered a non-renewable resource.

Uganda’s resources

Wood is a major energy resource in Uganda. Pupils might like to think about how it can be renewable or non-renewable.

Hydroelectricity is also very important in Uganda. Uganda has been plagued by increasingly frequent and severe power outages from its hydroelectric stations on the upper tributaries of the Nile River flowing in and out of Lake Victoria. Due in part to global warming, the water levels of Lake Victoria, the largest of Africa’s great lakes, have been decreasing steadily over the last decade.

With regional droughts, water levels dropped an astonishing half an inch per day in most of 2006. Uganda’s use of clean, renewable hydroelectric energy has served well to diversify the country’s fuel-mix and shield the economy from volatile world oil markets, but river flow and water levels are so low today that the dams are generating power at one-third of capacity.

Adapted from: American Progress, Website

3. Group work with a focus on recycling

Resource 2: Products from crude oil