A power plant burns coal that formed from plant material buried and compressed over hundreds of millions of years. How is coal classified as a natural resource?

Wind is classified as a nonrenewable energy resource because a windy day can come to an end.

Two bulbs give off the same amount of light. Bulb A uses 60 watts of electrical energy and Bulb B uses 9 watts. Which bulb uses energy more efficiently?

A farm compares watering methods. Sprinklers deliver 400 liters per row and 120 liters evaporate. Drip tubes deliver 250 liters per row and 15 liters evaporate. Which method conserves more water?

A class models two hillside plots under the same rainfall. Bare soil loses 180 grams of soil per storm. A plot with a cover crop loses 25 grams. What do these data support?

A factory installs a device in its smokestack that traps solid particles before the gases leave. What is the main purpose of this technology?

A town wants to find fuel leaks in its river quickly. Its plan tests the water once each year and mails the results a month later. Why does this plan fail the town's goal?

Recycling aluminum cans into new cans uses much less energy than making aluminum from newly mined ore.

A well field pumps 500 million liters of groundwater each year from an aquifer that is refilled by only 200 million liters each year. What consequence does this pattern predict?

A school replaces its windows with double-pane windows that slow energy transfer. In winter, how does this change the energy the school needs for heating?

A district must cut water use by at least 20 percent and spend under $8,000. Plan A cuts 25 percent for $12,000. Plan B cuts 22 percent for $6,500. Which plan meets the criterion and the constraint?

Students test how mulch depth affects water loss from soil. They put 0 cm, 2 cm, and 5 cm of mulch on identical trays of the same soil and measure the water lost each day. What is the independent variable?

A team measures how much water a low-flow showerhead saves. They repeat the measurement five times and report the mean. Why is repeating and averaging better than a single trial?

In one town, the mass of paper recycled rose every year from 2019 to 2024. The number of cell phones owned in the town also rose every year. What conclusion do these data best support?

A student checking a stream records two observations: the water smells musty, and the water temperature is 14 degrees Celsius. How are these two observations classified?

Solar energy, wind, and flowing water are grouped together as renewable energy resources. What do all three share that natural gas does not?

Two fields sit on the same slope. The field plowed straight up and down the slope loses 4.2 kg of soil per storm. The field plowed along the curve of the slope loses 1.1 kg. What do the data support?

Using a natural resource more efficiently means getting the same job done while using less of that resource.

A city installs sensors at ten sites that measure particles in the air every hour and send the readings automatically. What does this technology mainly allow the city to do?

A wetland beside a river is paved over for a parking lot. After a heavy rainstorm, what consequence for the water resource is most likely?