IB ESS ยท Topic 7 of 8

IB ESS Topic 7: Natural resources

2 ready-made review sets for this topic, 18 questions in all, marked SL or HL, to play as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.

A question from the sets

The sustainable yield of goods and services from natural capital, like interest earned on a bank balance (e.g. annual timber growth, fish catch)?

  • Natural capital
  • Natural incomeRight answer
  • Renewable resources
  • Resource security
From Topic 7: Natural Resources, 12 questions.

What Topic 7 covers

Topic 7 covers natural resources and how they are managed: natural capital and natural income, renewable and non-renewable resources, ecosystem services and resource security. Then energy: fossil fuels and renewable sources, and energy conservation, efficiency and storage. At higher level it adds environmental impact assessments, energy security, nuclear power and its radioactive waste, and the costs of mining battery metals such as lithium and cobalt. The guide's third subtopic, solid waste, has no set yet.

  • 7.1 Natural resources: uses and management
  • 7.2 Energy sources: uses and management
  • 7.3 Solid waste

Where students slip

  • Natural capital is the stock; natural income is the yield from it. Using a resource sustainably means living off the income without running down the capital.
  • Renewable does not mean unlimited: a fish stock or a forest can still be used faster than it regenerates.
  • Energy conservation means using less energy, by changing what we do; energy efficiency means doing the same job with less energy, through better technology.
  • Nuclear power is low-carbon but not renewable: its fuel, uranium, is a finite resource.

The sets

Play this set opens the set in splycr, where you can read every question and host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account, and students join with the code on the board. A free account lets you copy a set and edit it.

The questions come from the Biology by Bradford flashcard bank. Each one plays as multiple choice, and the wrong options are other answers from the same set.

ESS has had a higher level course since the guide first assessed in 2026. Sets marked SL suit every ESS student, because higher level students study the standard level content too. Sets marked HL cover the additional higher level material in topics 2 to 8; Topic 1 has none, so its sets are all SL. The three HL lenses (environmental law, economics and ethics) have no sets yet.

Topic 7: Natural Resources

12 questionsSL

  1. The sustainable yield of goods and services from natural capital, like interest earned on a bank balance (e.g. annual timber growth, fish catch)?

    Answer: Natural income

  2. Resources that can be regenerated at least as fast as they are consumed?

    Answer: Renewable resources

  3. Using less energy to perform the same task through improved technology?

    Answer: Energy efficiency

Play this setand 9 more questions

Topic 7: Natural Resources (HL)

6 questionsHL

  1. Report required before a development project is approved, predicting its effects on ecosystems and communities and proposing ways to reduce harm?

    Answer: Environmental impact assessment (EIA)

  2. By-product of nuclear fission that stays hazardous for thousands of years, so it needs secure long-term storage?

    Answer: Radioactive waste

  3. Light battery metal mined from hard rock or pumped from salt-flat brines, where extraction uses scarce water in arid regions?

    Answer: Lithium

Play this setand 3 more questions

Game modes that suit this topic

Every set plays in all eight modes. These two fit this topic best.

  • Throne

    One student defends the throne against the whole class, and a wrong answer from the champion costs double. Pairs like conservation and efficiency make a good duel.

  • Cryo

    For a lighter lesson: students move round a frozen arena and answer a question from the set correctly to reload. Up to 20 players.

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