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4th grade · Science · Unit 15 of 17

Texas Energy Resources

Wind, sun, oil and natural gas: where our energy comes from and the rocks that hold it.

What your child practices

Practices renewable and nonrenewable resources and their advantages and disadvantages, why energy matters to modern life, how conservation and recycling help, and the properties of rocks (pores and spaces) that let oil, gas and groundwater be stored underground. Uses Texas examples such as West Texas wind farms and oil and gas fields.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 4.11(A); 4.11(B); 4.11(C) · renewable and nonrenewable resources, why energy matters, and the rocks that store oil, gas and water

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Renewable: wind, sunlight and moving water (hydropower). Nonrenewable: oil, natural gas and coal.
  2. Wind turbines on the plains of West Texas turn wind into electricity.
  3. Oil, gas and groundwater are found in underground rock layers. Water-holding layers are aquifers.
  4. Save energy by turning off lights you aren't using.

Example: Is natural gas renewable or nonrenewable? Natural gas formed underground over millions of years. We use it much faster than it forms. Answer: nonrenewable

Texas Energy Resources in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 15 of 17 in 4th grade Science, after Weather or Climate? and before Weathering, Erosion & Fossils.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Recycling aluminum cans helps because it…

    • uses more oil
    • uses less energy than making new cans
    • makes more trash
    • harms the soil

  2. Question 2

    Which is NOT a natural resource?

    • Sunlight
    • Water
    • A plastic toy
    • Wind

  3. Question 3

    A dam can affect fish like salmon by…

    • giving them wings
    • blocking their path up the river
    • making them bigger
    • making the river saltier

  4. Question 4

    Gasoline for cars is made from…

    • sunlight
    • water
    • wind
    • oil

  5. Question 5

    Which is a way people use energy from the sun without electricity?

    • Burning coal
    • Using a gas dryer
    • Running a generator
    • Drying clothes on a line

  6. Question 6

    Water can be stored underground in rock layers called…

    • volcanoes
    • aquifers
    • dunes
    • glaciers

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