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Abstract
This is the first of six PowerPoint population
presentations.
Most of us know that Earth's human population
is growing, but this lesson QUANTIFIES that understanding (Each day,
approximately 365,000 births minus about 147,000 deaths result in
approximately 218,000 extra citizens -- daily).
As students
try to imagine the implications of 9,000 extra persons in the human
population (each hour) they also solve this riddle: How long would
it take for a student to complete 1 billion homework questions at a
rate of 100 questions per night, 5 nights per week, 52 weeks per
year?
When they arrive at the answer (38,461 years to
complete their assignment!), they are better prepared to consider
the implications of one billion additional people inhabiting our
planet........ every twelve years.
Lesson fundamental understandings:
Essential
Questions:
Standards
National Standards Living organisms have
the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but
environments and resources are finite. Human beings live within the
world's ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a
result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human
destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution,
atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global
stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly
affected. Populations grow or decline through the combined effects
of births and deaths, and through emigration and immigration.
Populations can increase through linear or exponential growth, with
effects on resource use and environmental pollution. Various factors
influence birth rates and fertility rates, such as average levels of
affluence and education, importance of children in the labor force,
education and employment of women, infant mortality rates, costs of
raising children, availability and reliability of birth control
methods, and religious beliefs and cultural norms that influence
personal decisions about family size. Populations can reach limits
to growth. Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals
that can be supported in a given environment. The limitation is not
the availability of space, but the number of people in relation to
resources and the capacity of earth systems to support human beings.
Changes in technology can cause significant changes, either positive
or negative, in carrying capacity
State Standards
Lesson
Prerequisite Skills
This is a self-contained unit and students can complete the
PowerPoint presentation itself by simply reading each slide and
using the mouse to click through the slides of the program. The
enrichment activities suggested below, if assigned, offer
opportunities to enhance student skills using search engines,
entering URLs to access internet information, developing graphs,
tables and charts, preparing PowerPoint or multimedia presentations,
etc.
Teacher
Information/Situations/Setting/Time This is a
self-contained unit and students can complete the PowerPoint
presentation itself by simply reading each slide and using the mouse
to click through the slides of the program.
The enrichment
activities suggested below, if assigned, offer opportunities to
enhance student skills using search engines, entering URLs to access
internet information, developing graphs, tables and charts,
preparing PowerPoint or multimedia presentations, etc.
Assessment
This is a self-contained unit and students can complete the
PowerPoint presentation itself by simply reading each slide and
using the mouse to click through the slides of the
program.
The enrichment activities suggested below, if
assigned, offer opportunities to enhance student skills using search
engines, entering URLs to access internet information, developing
graphs, tables and charts, preparing PowerPoint or multimedia
presentations, etc.
Student Activity/Tasks (1) Students
click through PowerPoint lesson (27 slides).
(2) Students answer
worksheet items based on lesson information.
(3) Students take
"self-quiz" (see closing screens of the presentation).
(4)
Students take turns reading worksheet items aloud, and specify the
correct answer to each item.
(5) Class discussion and further
research may follow at the option of the instructor.
Enrichment/Alternate Activity:
Cross-Curricular:
Technology
Requirements/Tools/Materials
Access to a computer that is connected to the Internet.
Acknowledgements:
Additional Resources
Main
URL:
Related Lessons
Related Resources
Copyright © 1997-2003
Career Connection to Teaching with Technology
USDOE Technology Innovation Challenge Grant
Marshall Ransom, Project Manager
All rights reserved.
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