Year 7 · Unit 01 · Lesson 01
The Lucky Ground, Literally
One idea must land: renewability is about rate — not a memorised list.
Students walk in thinking WA “has mining.” They walk out as resources analysts who can classify anything the earth offers — and argue the tricky cases. Four phases, one card sort, one test that beats the list.
Four objects on screen: a phone, a soft-drink can, a window, a concrete wall. Teams lock their calls in the handout — before any discussion. Then the reveal: all four. Lithium and forty-plus minerals in the phone; bauxite in the can; silica sand in the glass; limestone, sand and iron in the wall.
Students draft their own definitions first; then build the class versions together. Teach classification as a test, not a list: does nature replace it as fast as we use it? Model two clean cases — sunlight (arrives daily, regardless of use) versus Pilbara iron ore (≈ 2.5 billion years old; once shipped, not coming back).
Teams of 3–4, twenty cards, three lanes: renewable · non-renewable · it depends. Two rules, strictly enforced: maximum five cards in It Depends, and every one needs a written defence. Close with the sixty-second defences — each team argues its strongest card, the class votes whether the defence stands.
Individual: classify three unseen resources (uranium, solar, native hardwood) and finish “A resource is non-renewable when…” You're listening for rate language — replace, replenish, faster than we use it. Skim before Lesson 2: it tells you who reasons by rate and who guesses by list.