These three energy and resource use data graphing activities will help your students understand how energy production, carbon emissions, and resource extraction impact the environment while building strong graphing and data analysis skills. This bundle gives teachers an easy, NO PREP way to have students work with real-world environmental data to explore Renewable vs Nonrenewable Energy Trends, Carbon Footprints, and Mining & Resource Depletion.

There are 3 Graphing Labs Included:

1. Renewable vs Nonrenewable Energy Trends Investigation
2. Carbon Footprint Investigation
3. Mining & Resource Depletion Investigation

Students analyze real-world datasets related to energy production by source, carbon emissions, transportation emissions, per capita emissions by country, mineral extraction trends, population growth, and land disturbance from mining. They then create a variety of graph types from data tables before using their graphs to identify patterns, analyze long-term trends, and explain how human energy use impacts the environment. Each activity includes a complete answer key with the required graphs if you need to differentiate for different ability levels.

How It Works

Students use provided real-world data tables to:

• Create multiple types of graphs (line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, and scatter plots)
• Identify long-term trends in energy production and resource use
• Compare relationships between variables such as population growth and mineral extraction
• Analyze how fossil fuel use relates to carbon emissions
• Explore how transportation choices impact carbon footprints
• Use evidence from graphs to answer discussion questions about energy use and sustainability

Each activity moves students from reading data → graphing data → interpreting patterns → explaining environmental and resource impacts.

Perfect for:

• Energy units
• Environmental science lessons
• Data analysis practice
• Graphing skill development
• Small group collaboration
• Sub plans or review days
• Cross-curricular math connections
• NGSS Earth science lessons

This graphing bundle is also included inside my Middle School Science Graphing & Data Analysis Mega Bundle at a significant discount. The bundle contains graphing activities for all 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science topics.

What’s Included

✅ Three energy and resource use graphing investigations
✅ Real-world data tables for each activity
✅ Multiple graphing tasks in every investigation
✅ Data analysis discussion questions
✅ Complete answer keys
✅ Extension activities
✅ Rubrics for each investigation

Topics Students Explore

• Renewable vs nonrenewable energy sources
• Energy production trends over time
• Carbon emissions by energy source
• Household carbon footprints
• Transportation emissions vs distance
• Per capita emissions by country
• Mineral extraction trends
• Resource depletion
• Population growth and resource demands
• Land disturbance from mining
• Sustainability and conservation strategies

Teacher-Friendly Features

• Uses real-world environmental and energy datasets
• Promotes critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning
• Builds graphing and data literacy skills
• Supports NGSS Science & Engineering Practices
• Easy to implement with minimal prep
• Flexible for Grades 6–8 classrooms