Lesson Y8-U06-L01

Y8-U06-L01 What Are Resources, and Why Do They Matter? Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 12

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson Y8-U06-L01, What Are Resources, and Why Do They Matter?: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 12: Year 8: Resources: Feeding and Powering the World, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is a resource?

    • A group of people living together in a town or village
    • Anything from nature that people use to meet a need
    • A machine that makes electricity in a factory on the coast
    • A type of rock formed by lava flows and cooled over time

  2. What does 'renewable' mean for a resource?

    • A resource that is made only by factories in large cities
    • A resource that nature replaces as fast as we use it, like sunlight
    • A resource that takes millions of years to form, like coal and oil, and is pumped out of the ground
    • A resource that only exists under the sea, in deep oil fields

  3. What does 'non-renewable' mean for a resource?

    • A resource that only grows in deserts, where the sun is strong
    • A resource replaced by nature as fast as we use it, like wind and sunlight, so it never runs out in any period of time
    • A resource that can be made in a laboratory every day
    • A resource that runs out because nature replaces it far too slowly, like coal

  4. What is a natural system?

    • A set of rules for trading goods between countries
    • A part of nature that keeps working on its own, like the water cycle or soil
    • A system of roads built by humans to connect the towns and cities, which needs constant repair and funding
    • A computer network in a school used for lessons each day

  5. Which of these is non-renewable?

    • Sunlight
    • Coal
    • Wind
    • Flowing river water

  6. Which of these is renewable?

    • Natural gas
    • Coal
    • Crude oil
    • Wind power

  7. Is natural gas renewable or non-renewable?

    • Non-renewable, because it forms over millions of years
    • Renewable, because it grows back each year in the same fields
    • Neither, because gas is not a resource that people use at all
    • Renewable, because factories make it every day in large plants

  8. Why is wood usually classed as renewable?

    • Wood is formed under the sea over many thousands of years
    • Wood is made from coal that has been dug from the ground
    • Trees take millions of years to grow into full-sized timber, so wood is rare and precious in every country
    • Trees can be replanted and grow back within a human lifetime

  9. Which three resources are most essential for a country's people and economy?

    • Gold, silver and iron
    • Wind, rain and snow
    • Food, water and energy
    • Sand, clay and glass

  10. How does energy help put food on a plate?

    • It powers the cooking and the transport that bring food to us
    • It removes all water from the food before it is sold
    • It stops food from ever going off, even in hot weather
    • It makes food grow without any sunlight at all in the fields, which means farmers can grow crops in dark caves

  11. Which job does water do in our world?

    • It turns deserts into cities without any rain at all
    • It makes coal burn faster in the boilers of power stations
    • It grows crops and keeps people alive
    • It creates new rock layers in the mantle far below the crust

  12. A factory stops because its energy supply runs out. Which resource problem has happened?

    • A water surplus
    • An energy shortage
    • A food surplus
    • A renewable energy boom

  13. Solar panels still work tomorrow, but a tank of petrol is gone once it is burnt. What does this show?

    • Solar is renewable and petrol is non-renewable
    • Both are non-renewable, since both run out eventually for everyone
    • Both are renewable, because both can be used again and again
    • Petrol is renewable because it is burnt and so it returns to the air

  14. Which sorting of resources is correct?

    • Renewable: wind, solar, hydro; non-renewable: coal, oil, gas
    • Renewable: coal; non-renewable: everything else in the world
    • Renewable: sand and gold; non-renewable: wind and sun
    • Renewable: coal, oil, gas; non-renewable: wind, solar, hydro, which is the wrong way round for the whole list

  15. Why do fossil fuels count as non-renewable?

    • They are made by wind turbines on the coast each year
    • They form over millions of years, far slower than we use them
    • They form in a few days each year after heavy rains, so people can rely on them as long as they like
    • They are replaced every time it rains over the same land

  16. Which UK resource lies under the North Sea?

    • Forest timber
    • River water only
    • Oil and natural gas
    • Coastal wind

  17. Why do windy coasts and uplands suit wind power?

    • Turbines need coal to run
    • Turbines work best in still air
    • Wind power needs sunlight only
    • Turbines need wind to turn

  18. Why is the UK moving away from North Sea gas?

    • Gas is non-renewable and will run out, while wind keeps blowing
    • Gas cannot be burned at all in power stations
    • Gas makes the sea colder in the winter months
    • Gas is renewable and will never run out in any country, so the UK could rely on it for ever and ever

  19. Which test best classifies a resource as renewable or non-renewable?

    • Does it come from a factory, and is it shiny when new?
    • Is it found under the sea, and is it expensive to buy and sell in the markets of many countries?
    • Is it a metal, and is it grey in colour when first dug out?
    • Does nature refill it as fast as we use it, or does it form too slowly?

  20. Why is it not enough to say that a resource is plentiful in order to call it renewable?

    • Renewable only means a resource is found in the UK and nowhere else in the world, so it counts as home-grown
    • Renewable only means that a resource is cheap to buy and sell
    • Plentiful resources are always renewable, whatever they are
    • Renewable depends on whether nature replaces it as fast as we use it

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