Fuels and energy resources
Where electricity actually comes from, which resources will run out, and the honest trade-offs of each. This is a topic where you are expected to weigh evidence, not just list facts.
Part of your national curriculum
- Physics: energy: Understand fuels and energy resources, including renewable and non-renewable resources
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Understand fuels and energy resources, including renewable and non-renewable resources
Key learning points
- • How most electricity is generated
- • Which will run out
- • The trade-offs
- • Answering an evaluation question
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 19 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 19
Watch first
Fuels and energy resources
An English teaching video on this topic from Cognito. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
Do it for real
The practicals below use what the film shows, with a full method you can follow at home.
In a nutshell
Understand fuels and energy resources, including renewable and non-renewable resources
What you already know
Part 2 of 19
Before we start
What you already know
You should know energy is transferred and that some resources are called renewable.
Key words
Part 3 of 19
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Non-renewable
- A resource used faster than it forms, such as coal, oil, gas and uranium.
- Renewable
- A resource replenished as fast as it is used, such as wind, solar and hydro.
- Fossil fuel
- Coal, oil or gas, formed from ancient organisms.
- Reliability
- Whether a resource can supply power whenever it is needed.
- Carbon dioxide
- The greenhouse gas released when fossil fuels burn.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 19
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Renewable and non-renewable
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 19
Learn
How most electricity is generated
In a conventional power station, a fuel is burned to heat water, the steam turns a turbine and the turbine drives a generator. Nuclear stations do the same but heat the water using energy released from splitting uranium nuclei. Wind and hydroelectric schemes skip the heating and turn the turbine directly.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 19
Learn
Which will run out
Coal, oil, gas and uranium are non-renewable: they formed over millions of years and we use them far faster than that. Wind, solar, hydroelectric, tidal, wave, geothermal and biomass are renewable. Biomass is renewable but still releases carbon dioxide when burned, which is a distinction worth being precise about.
Quick check
Part 7 of 19
Quick check
Which is non-renewable?
Quick check
Part 8 of 19
Quick check
In a gas power station the turbine is turned by...
Reset break
Part 9 of 19
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 19
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Weighing the trade-offs
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 19
Learn
The trade-offs
Fossil fuels are reliable and their stations can be built anywhere, but they release carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Nuclear releases almost no carbon dioxide and produces a great deal of power, but leaves radioactive waste and is expensive to build and decommission. Wind and solar release no carbon dioxide in use but depend on weather and need storage or backup.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 19
Learn
Answering an evaluation question
Give one advantage and one disadvantage per resource, then judge against a stated criterion: reliability, cost, carbon dioxide, land use. 'Solar is best because it is clean' scores poorly; 'solar suits domestic supply because peak demand overlaps with daylight, but reliability makes it a poor sole source in winter' scores well because the judgement is reasoned.
Quick check
Part 13 of 19
Quick check
The main disadvantage of nuclear power is...
Quick check
Part 14 of 19
Quick check
Which is the strongest evaluation?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 19
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Nuclear power is not renewable - uranium is a finite resource.
- Renewable does not automatically mean no carbon dioxide; burning biomass releases it.
- Wind turbines do not generate at all wind speeds - too little or too much stops them.
- 'Cleanest' depends on the criterion; name the one you are using.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 19
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 17 of 19
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Nuclear stations do the same but heat the water using ____ released from splitting uranium nuclei.
Coal, oil, gas and uranium are non-____: they formed over millions of years and we use them far faster than that.
Mastery quiz
Part 18 of 19
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Fuels and energy resources
6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Fossil fuels include...
2. Burning biomass releases...
3. Hydroelectric power turns a turbine using...
4. Reliability means a resource...
5. Which releases no carbon dioxide while operating?
6. A good evaluation answer must include...
Lesson round-up
Part 19 of 19
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Why the school greenhouse failed
A science club grew tomato plants in the school greenhouse. In June the plants grew well: leaves were dark green and the fruit set quickly. In July the club went away for two weeks and left the greenhouse door shut. When they came back, the leaves were curled and pale and most of the fruit had dropped.
The club had a data logger inside. It showed the temperature reached 46 °C on several afternoons and the soil moisture fell close to zero. The club knew photosynthesis needs light, water and carbon dioxide, and that enzymes in a plant work best in a narrow range of temperature. Above that range the enzymes stop working properly.
The club repeated the summer with the door propped open and a water bottle drip on each pot. Temperature peaked at 31 °C and the plants survived.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Name the variable the club changed the second time, and one variable they kept the same.
- Explain, using the words photosynthesis and enzymes, why the plants were damaged in July.
- Write a conclusion for the club's report, saying how far the evidence supports it.
Method and results
WritingWrite the aim, what you changed, what you measured and what you kept the same, then record your results in a table.
1 page + results table
Conclusion
WritingExplain what your results show and why, using the scientific words from the lesson. Say how you know you can trust them.
6–8 sentences
Labelled diagram
DiagramDraw the apparatus or the process in pencil, label it fully, and photograph it.
1 labelled diagram
Reading and notes
ReadingRead the lesson text again and write the key ideas in your own words.
Half a page of notes
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Understand fuels and energy resources, including renewable and non-renewable resources