A STANDARDS-BASED-UNIT FOR GRADES 7-12
Standards:
Desired Outcomes:
Students learn:
This Standards-Based-Unit was prepared using Connections, Linking Population and the Environment available for $13 from the Population Reference Bureau, Inc., 1875 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 520, Washington, DC 20009-5728. Sets of 10 Student Resource Books can be ordered for $30. Extra copies of the World Population Data Sheet are $3 each. Most lessons will take one class period. The entire unit will take 2-3 weeks.
Unit scope:
This curriculum presents an overview of population dynamics, environmental impacts of natural resource use, and steps that can be taken for sustainable development. It has units on Africa, Asia, and Latin America. There are 80 pages of student readings as well as tables and graphs. This unit is a sample of what the curriculum offers. Population Reference Bureau's new Adventures on Earth curriculum is briefer and provides a good overview of these issues. The strength of the Connections curriculum is its student readings.
Assessment:
Teachers may want to have students choose a country for in-depth written and/or oral reports.
Lesson One: Assign the reading The Challenge of Our Times, pp. 5-10 for homework, with a follow-up quiz on new vocabulary. Do Lesson 1.1 Have groups of 2-4 students classify the 25 vocabulary terms into three to five categories. They must be able to describe the rationale for their category headings. Compare category headings with the whole class.
Lesson Two: Have students read Part Two of The Challenge of Our Times, pp.10-15 for homework. Show the six minute video "World Population." It depicts population growth from 1 AD to the year 2020 using dots to represent one million people. (see resources). Do Lesson 1.2 activities #4 & 5: Using a transparency of a chart of world population growth, ask students to interpret the chart (additional questions are provided in the curriculum).
Lesson Three: Population Pyramids Lesson 2.6 Have students construct population pyramids based on different countries' populations. Discuss the implications of the the different shaped pyramids.
Lesson Four: Data Analysis Lessons 1.3 and 2.2 Introduce students to reading population data sheets. The student resource guide has a 1990 World Environmental Data Sheet on pages 93 and 94. The curriculum includes one World Population Data Sheet.
Lesson Five: Desertification in Africa Lesson 3.1 Have students read Sustainable Development in Africa (pp. 16-21) for homework. Discuss desertification. The curriculum suggests showing The Naked Earth, a 25 minute video about Kenya. This video is no longer available. There are, however several videos about rain forest deforestation available from The Video Project (see http://www.videoproject.org/). This can be combined with a reading from pp. 34-37 about fuelwood. Lesson 3.7 gives additional questions and a worksheet about deforestation.
Lesson Six: Have students continue reading from pp. 21-25 about population growth in Africa. Have the class complete an age dependency analysis worksheet.
Lesson Seven: Have students read Survival in the Sahel (pp. 26-37) for homework. Lesson 3.4 gives a class simulation activity of village life in the Sahel region.
Lesson Eight: Have students read pp. 31-34 on family planning in Kenya for homework. Lesson 3.6 has students role play in a decision-making process of a Kenyan couple debating having a fifth child.
Lesson Nine: Have students read "World Citizens Must Change Their Ways", pp. 75-80. Show the video, Sustainable Lives, Attainable Dreams about family planning success stories in Indonesia, Mexico and Kenya. Lesson 6.1 gives more suggestions for "wrap-up."
Closure: In order to summarize the unit, teachers should review the concepts of carrying capacity, and the need to balance our use of natural resources and our population growth with our planet's ability to sustain our way(s) of life. Students could be asked to write about what their preferred future looks like and how current levels of resource consumption and population growth affect their lives. They could discuss steps they can take to effect change. The students' oral or written reports (given below), with class discussion, would also serve to bring closure to the unit.
Students choose a country and discuss the carrying capacity of their country, and present an overview of the relationships among population growth rates, quality of life and environmental stewardship. Students should discuss the resource demands placed on their country's environmental systems, and the impact these demands are having on their country's natural systems, on other animal species and on human well being. Student projects should contain most of the following topics and should discuss connections among these topics:
*available on loan from VPA
Videos
World Population* available for $19.95 from Zero Population Growth (ZPG), 1400 Sixteenth St., NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036, 1-800-POP-1956
Sustainable Lives, Attainable Dreams* available from National Wildlife Federation, 1400 16th St., NW Washington, DC 20036
Curriculum
Earth Matters and People and the Planet,* high school and middle school curricula published by Zero Population Growth, available for $19.95 and $22.95, respectively.
Adventures on Earth*, middle and high school curriculum by Population Reference Bureau
Community Sustainability*, grades 9-12, available for $3 from the Izaak Walton League, 707 Conservation Lane, Gaithersburg, MD 20878-2983 (301) 548-0150 <sustain@iwla.org> http://www.iwla.org
Living in a Material World: Lessons on Commercialism, Consumption, and Environment, grades 8-12, Available for $15 from the Center for Science in the Public interest, 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300 Washington DC 20009-5728 (202)332-9110
Other
Vermont Population Alliance's Population and Sustainable Living Resource Guide* lists books, videos, web sites, curricula, organizations working on population and consumption, and materials available on loan from VPA.
Why Population Matters* published by Population Action International
This Standards-Based-Unit was written by Barbara Duncan, Executive Director of Vermont Population Alliance (VPA) and member of ZPG's Population Education Network (PETNet). Ms. Duncan is a Population Mentor for the Sierra Club and is active with the National Audubon Society's Population and Habitat Program. For more information you can reach VPA at P.O. Box 466, Norwich, VT 05055, 802-649-5168, bdpop@valley.net. VPA is available for school programs and teachers' workshops.
VPA has produced another high school Standards Based Unit using Zero Population Growth's (ZPG) curriculum, Earth Matters. VPA has also produced Standards Based Units to accompany PRB's and ZPG's elementary and middle school curricula.