Saskatchewan Treasures Natural Resources GradeGrade 4 SocialFive StudiesScience & Science CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS Grade 4: Social Studies RW4.3 and Science RM4.1; RM4.2 LESSON PLAN ONE: CLASSROOMCLASSROOM INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION TOTO THETHE THEME LESSON OVERVIEW Students will discover that Saskatchewan is rich in resources, both in quantity and variety. RESOURCES AND MATERIALS • Fast Facts information (at the end of resource package) • Paper and art supplies • Access to the school library and Internet PROCEDURE Coal miners inside a mine near Estevan, circa 1912. Western Development Museum 1. Prepare to teach by reviewing the Fast Facts at the end of 6-B-1 this resource package. A number of additional references are also listed in the resources section at the end of this package for your information. 2. Introduce the topic of natural resources in the province 3. Divide the students into small groups and assign one natural by brainstorming with the students about what kinds of resource to each group. Each group will research a natural materials are harvested and extracted for economic gain. resource and create an informative poster. Students should (Non-renewable resources include uranium, potash, coal, be encouraged to fi nd pictures, maps or samples for their oil and natural gas, gold, diamonds, sodium sulphate, salt, posters. On their posters, the students should answer the peat, clay, sand and gravel. Renewable resources include following questions: forestry, wind power, hydroelectric power, solar power, fi sh, • Is the resource renewable or non-renewable? game and wild harvested products like mushrooms and • Where and when was it discovered in the province? certain plants.) What do the students think the materials are • Where and how is the resource currently harvested or used for? Are natural resources in Saskatchewan used only mined? here, or are they shipped across Canada, North America • How is it used, and what products is it used to make? or around the world? Introduce or review the defi nitions • Where are the markets for the resource? of renewable (can be regenerated in a short time frame • Are there any environmental concerns related to – months, years or decades) and non-renewable (cannot mining or extracting the resource? How does it affect be regenerated in a human life-span) resources. the landscape? 107 Saskatchewan Treasures Natural Resources Grade Five Science ADAPTATION AND EXTENSION 1. To help familiarize students with Saskatchewan’s vast array of natural resources, create a series of question cards about Saskatchewan’s natural resources and play a trivia game. LESSON PLAN TWO: AT THE MUSEUM LESSON OVERVIEW Students will explore the contents of a discovery box and tour exhibits in the Museum. RESOURCES AND MATERIALS • Materials and information sent to you in your Museum tour confi rmation package. PROCEDURE 1. Prepare to teach and to tour the Museum by reviewing the resources listed. Divide your class into groups before the visit. Discuss the required number of groups with the In the Saskatchewan Treasures - Natural Resources discovery box, students will see and touch samples of our renewable and non-renewable resources. Aided by maps, students Museum Programmer when you book your visit. Select will discuss the location of resources in Saskatchewan and how these resources have other staff members or parents to lead the groups. Advise contributed to our wellbeing. the group leader about what they will have to do. 2. Students will visit a Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Saskatoon or Yorkton. The entire class will assemble for a welcome and orientation. 3. The class will be divided into two, three or more groups. Students will interact with artifacts, replicas and photographs located in a discovery box. A leader’s script included in the discovery box will spearhead discussion. 4. The class will tour pertinent exhibits in the Museum using a tour handout to guide their exploration. This handout may be a question-and-answer sheet or scavenger hunt. A tour script for the group leader will be sent to you with confi rmation of your Museum tour booking. 108 Saskatchewan Treasures Natural Resources Grade Five Science LESSON PLAN THREE: WHENWHEN AA MUSEUMMUSEUM VISITVISIT ISN’TISN’T POSSIBLEPOSSIBLE LESSON OVERVIEW Students will trace the pathway of petroleum products to gain an appreciation for the many ways in which natural resources can be utilized, how widespread their impact is on the world, and the environmental impact of their extraction and processing. Students will be asked to consider how the negative environmental impact of petroleum use could be minimized, and how they could contribute. RESOURCES AND MATERIALS • A selection of items from the petroleum products list The Pas Lumber Company cars and mill, Reserve, SK, circa 1949. Saskatchewan History gathered by the teacher (appendix one) and Folklore Society, Everett Baker Collection 6256 • Copies of the petroleum products list (appendix one) PROCEDURE 1. Introduce the topic of petroleum by asking students what directly by oil drilling companies, as well as companies they know about it. Petroleum or crude oil is formed from which service the oil industry and in related facilities organic matter (partially decayed plants, animals and like Moose Jaw Asphalt Inc.; Consumers’ Co-operative microbes), which has been buried deep in the earth by Refi neries Ltd. in Regina, Canada’s fi rst heavy oil upgrader; layers and layers of sedimentary rock. Over time, heat NewGrade Energy Inc., which converts heavy crude into and pressure transform the organic matter into crude oil. lighter products used by the Co-op Refi nery; and the heavy Because petroleum is lighter than water, it moves upwards oil upgrader in Lloydminster owned by Husky Oil. through ground water and fi lls tiny crevices in the rocks 2. Ask the students what they think petroleum is used for. until it reaches an impenetrable layer where the cracks are Students will likely know that it is used to produce fuel to too small for it to pass through. The petroleum remains run automobiles and other machines. Ask the students to there until it is extracted through drilling. In Saskatchewan, take a look around the classroom and pick out any objects the fi rst commercial discovery of crude oil dates back that might be made using petroleum products. Bring to 1944 in the Lloydminster area. During the 1950s and out the various items that you have collected that have 1960s, an intensive exploration effort was undertaken been made using petroleum products for the students to resulting in the discovery of signifi cant reserves. examine. Explain that although the main use of petroleum Since that time, Saskatchewan has grown to become is as a fuel, it is also used to make all plastics, asphalt for Canada’s second largest crude oil producer after Alberta, road construction, paraffi n wax and much more (see list contributing 21 percent of Canada’s total production in in appendix one). Are they surprised by the vast number 2005. Saskatchewan had over 20,000 active wells. The of items that are made from petroleum products? Ask the province’s reserves contain the equivalent of 35-billion students to look around the room again. What other items barrels of oil. The petroleum industry is very important to can they spy that may be made with petroleum products? Saskatchewan’s economy. The revenue generated from petroleum leases, taxes and royalties was $906.9 million for 2004/2005. Many Saskatchewan people are employed 109 Saskatchewan Treasures Natural Resources Grade Five Science 3. Discuss with students the environmental impacts of 4. Distribute copies of the sheet from appendix one entitled extracting, manufacturing and using petroleum products. “Petroleum Products.” Using the list of petroleum products There are environmental concerns for land and ecosystem as a reference, instruct the students to write a page about disturbances due to investigation and drilling. There how we could contribute to minimizing the environmental is the potential for oil spills that can severely damage effects of petroleum use, like identifying products they ecosystems. Improper recycling of oil and other products could recycle from plastics to motor oil, encouraging can pollute the environment. Plastics discarded in landfi lls family to walk, bike or take public transportation, using take a long time to degrade. The burning of fuels releases alternatives like cloth diapers instead of disposable ones carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. and so on. Discuss ways in which these environmental effects have been minimized over time. For example, thanks to cleaner burning gasolines, it would now take 37 cars to produce the same emissions as one car in the 1960s, motor oils, paints and other solvents can be recycled, and oil drilling and excavation methods are being developed to minimize site disturbance. ADAPTATION AND EXTENSION 1. Visit a local museum. Go to www.saskmuseums.org to check out museums and heritage sites around Saskatchewan. Some of the museums located throughout the province that explore and preserve Saskatchewan’s natural resource industry history include: Kamsack Powerhouse Museum – Kamsack; Nipawin Living Forestry Museum – Nipawin; Northern Gateway Museum – Denare Beach; Goodsoil Historical Museum – Goodsoil; Meadow Lake Museum – Meadow Lake; Vintage Power Museum – Prince Albert; Conservation Learning Museum – Prince Albert; Souris Valley Museum – Estevan; Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site - Claybank; Swift Current Museum – Swift Current; Barr Colony Heritage Cultural Centre – Lloydminster; Saskatchewan Science Centre – Regina; Royal Saskatchewan Museum – Regina; Potash Interpretive Centre - Esterhazy. 2. Arrange a tour of a facility in your area by contacting one of the many resource development companies located throughout the province Visit a potash mine, peat moss plant, diamond mine, coal mine, or wind power project. SaskPower and Shand Greenhouse, for example, offer a school room presentation for grades fi ve to six called “Energy and Our Environment”.