HOW HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH AND RESOURCE CONSUMPTION AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT
A STANDARDS BASED UNIT USING Counting on People, Zero Population Growth’s Elementary Curriculum designed for grades 4-6 (can be adapted for younger grades)
Standards:
6.9 Students examine the interrelationships among physical earth processes, ecosystems, and human activities.
7.13 Students … recognize the interdependence of all systems that support life.
7.15ee. Students understand ecological interactions and interdependence between humans and their resource demands on environmental systems.
Desired Outcomes:
Students learn:
This Standards-Based-Unit was prepared using available for $19.95 from Zero Population Growth (ZPG), 1400 Sixteenth St., N.W., Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036, 1-800-POP-1956. Most lessons are about 45 minutes long. The entire unit will take about 3 weeks.
Unit scope:
Unit time will vary with the scope of the projects and the amount of project time spent in class. This unit can be done as an integrated unit where the activities and the projects are the classes’ language arts, social studies, and environmental science work. Teachers can then add related math problems including data interpretation, understanding doubling and large numbers, and performing calculations of habitat loss, water use, energy use, etc. ZPG has an excellent math activities kit, Multiplying People, Dividing Resources for grades 5-10.
Assessment:
Teachers can choose to have student work be from the Arts, Language, and Literature Standards. There are assessment activities built into the unit in lessons five and eleven.
Lesson One: “Crowding Can Be Seedy” ZPG Activity 23, p.83 1 day
Explain to the class that you are going to be studying the effects of a growing, expanding population; that there are similar needs for most plants and animals: needs for food, water and space. This project needs to be started ahead of time so that the results will be apparent 2-3 weeks later. Suit yourself as to how much more of a discussion and introduction of the unit you want to go into at this time.
Lesson Two: Lessons from The Lorax ; ZPG Activity 28, p. 98 2 days
Using Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax students learn that, quoting the ZPG curriculum, “economic demands can lead to excessive use of natural resources, and population growth can add to environmental stress.”
Lesson Three: “Timber!” ZPG Activity 27, p.95-97 1 day
Students learn what happens to a forest when the demand for wood is greater than the supply.
Lesson Four: “Every Drop Counts” ZPG Activities 29 &30, pp. 99-104 2-3 days
Students learn about human use of water - its availability, water conservation, and uneven distribution and usage.
Lesson Five: Summary of Lessons 1-2 days
Students understand that resources can be renewable or non-renewable; that they can be conserved or squandered; that there are disparities of usage and distribution; that human use and impact can extend beyond one’s immediate geographic area. Assignment, which could be ongoing throughout these lessons: Write a story or a poem that tells about using water, trees or other resources wisely. The writing must show an understanding of the issues. See the list of read alouds which demonstrate environmental writing. Counting on People has poems on pages 51 and 91.
Lesson Six: The Popular Little Planet video (20 minutes) 1 day
This video stars two 11 years olds who provide an overview of the issues of population growth, consumption, migration, immigration. The video illustrates the scope of large numbers and exponential growth. Supplements to the video are David Schwartz’s How Much is a Million and ZPG Activities 3-5, pp. 22-25 on measuring a million.
Lesson Seven: Reading and Understanding World Population Data, ZPG Activity 6, pp. 26-30 2 days
Students research population statistics in a World Almanac. This activity supports the Standard 6.2, Using Data.
Lesson Eight: The Stork and the Grim Reaper; ZPG, Activity 16, p.56 1 day
Demonstrates carrying capacity and shows that the current birth rate in the world is 3 times the death rate. 15 minutes activity This activity could be expanded using Population Reference Bureau’s (PRB) World Population Data Sheet (portions of which are given in PRB’s Adventures on Earth 8-12 grade curriculum) which gives growth rates for most of the nations of the world.
Lesson Nine: Cougar Hunt, ZPG Activity 14, p. 52, 1 day
This is a fun activity that demonstrates carrying capacity.
Is it time to visit your seeds to discuss the effects of crowding?
Lesson Ten: Preserving Animal Habitats, ZPG Activities 39, 40, 41, pp. 128-136 3-4 days
These activities are suitable for younger children and could be given a week or more of study. Lesson ten is included to illustrate the connection between human population growth and human activities, and animal habitat loss.
Lesson Eleven: Something for Everyone Game: ZPG Activity 34, pp. 108-109 1 day
This is a simulation of natural resource management. After discussion, ask students to write about what Something for Everyone demonstrated. In order to summarize the unit, teachers need to review the concepts of carrying capacity including our need to balance our use of natural resources and our population growth with the Earth’s carrying capacity. The students’ oral reports for the suggested writing project would also bring closure to the unit.
Students choose a country and a genre (a report, letters to a pen pal, a series of newspaper articles). In their chosen genre students should 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:
Students will draw a poster or create a diorama representing the lifestyle/ environment of one segment of his/her country to depict the above listed topics. (Framework 1.16, 5.29, 5.30 Visual Arts) Students should provide a caption with credits and a brief explanation of the art work.
Students give brief oral reports about their countries (Framework 1.15). A class discussion of the similarities and differences in their countries.would bring the unit to a close.
1) Write a letter to a Congressional representative about a particular environmental issue.
2) Study local growth. Examine the balance of consideration of jobs, social needs, and the environment. Interview a local planner about regional growth planning. Find out whether there are any local sustainable community initiatives balancing consideration of social, environmental, and economic issues. Are there indicators that your students could monitor?
3) Do follow-up projects on energy use and energy conservation including ZPG’s unit on waste reduction, Activities 36 and 38, pp. 114-123.
4) Learn more about reduce, reuse, recycle activities from your local Solid Waste District or from the The Association of Vermont Recyclers (802-229-1833) in Montpelier.
5) With the help of the health teacher (and the blessing of the administration) discuss family planning so that your students understand that people can choose the number of children they bear, and that children and mothers are healthier when mothers wait until they are out of their teens to bear children. Students can also learn that by spacing births, each child receives more attention and has adequate mother’s milk (especially in the developing world where there is often malnutrition).
*available on loan from VPA
Read Aloud Suggestions:
Cherry, Lynn, A River Ran Wild and Great Kapok Tree (both are picture books)
George, Jean, The Secret Gator of Gumbo Limbo and Who Really Killed Cock Robin?
Hamilton, Virginia, Jaguarundi (picture book)
Peet, Bill, Farewell to Shady Glade (picture book)
Yolan, Jane, Letting Swift River Go (picture book)
(The picture books, while for younger readers, are excellent and are given as models for the students to use for their writing projects.)
Books:
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
How Much Is a Million by David Schwartz
Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel
Women in the Material World by Faith d’Alusio and Peter Menzel
These two “coffee table” books depict the material possessions of families from around the world. Each family and all of the family’s possessions are photographed in front of their home. Accompanying each photograph is a brief discussion of the lives of the family members. There are tables in the back of the books which give much of the writing project information.
Videos: (see Population Resource Guide for more information)
World Population (6 minutes) ZPG* - graphically depicts population growth since 1 AD
A Popular Little Planet (20 minutes), Sunburst Communications*
Publications:
Making Connections, Linking Population and the Environment Elementary Teacher’s Guide available for $15 from the Population Reference Bureau, Inc., 1875 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 520, Washington, DC 20009-5728
Population and Sustainable Living Resource Guide*, published by Vermont Population Alliance
Why Population Matters*, published by Population Action International ZPG’s free Kid’s Pack has excellent activities concerning population growth and natural resource usage.
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 a similar Standards Based Unit using Population Reference Bureau’s (PRB) elementary curriculum, Making Connections, Linking Population and the Environment Elementary Teacher’s Guide (listed in publications). VPA has also produced an elementary Standards Based Unit, “How Big is Your Ecological Footprint” using both the ZPG and PRB curricula. VPA has middle school and high school Standards Based Units to accompany PRB’s and ZPG’s middle school and high school curricula.