A Middle School Environmental Studies Standards Based Unit using People and the Planet: Lessons for a Sustainable Future
Fields of Knowledge Covered
6.9 Students examine the interrelationships among physical earth processes, ecosystems, and human activities.
7.15ee. Students understand ecological interactions and interdependence between humans and their resource demands on environmental systems.
7.9 Students use statistics;
7.9c gather data from an entire group or from a sample of its members, and identify the usefulness and limitations of each approach; analyze the validity of inferences about a set of data.
1.15 Students use verbal and nonverbal skills to express themselves effectively.
Desired Outcomes:
Students learn:
This SBU was prepared using: People and the Planet: Lessons for a Sustainable Future available for $19.95 from Zero Population Growth, 1400 Sixteenth St., N.W., Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036, 1-800-POP-1956. This curriculum has four major areas: population dynamics, resource use, global issues, and actions for a sustainable future. There are a total of 30 activities.
Unit Scope:
This SBU gives an overview of the issues of population growth and human impact to help middle school students understand the disparities of resource use and impacts people have on the environment. Each lesson is designed to have a homework component and should take one or two class periods.
Lesson One: Population Dynamics Student Reading #1, pp. 5-7 Activity #1, pp. 8-10.
Classroom discussion of the pros and cons of population growth. Activity #11, pp. 64-66 could be substituted for Activity #1 or be used to supplement it. It examines the first law of ecology, that everything is connected to everything else, by asking students to consider the connections between aspects of our natural environment and human society.
Lesson Two: Carrying Capacity
Activity #10. Students use an apple to represent the world, slicing it up ultimately to represent available arable land. This can be a teacher demonstration or it will work with plastic knives. Part 2 is a student worksheet analyzing available land. A teacher led discussion of the development of human societies from hunter gatherer to agrarian to industrial would complement students’ understanding of the shift in land and natural resource uses.
Lesson Three: Global Disparities Student Reading 3, pp.123-127
Activity 22 “Food for Thought” This activity demonstrates global disparities in resource consumption, wealth, and population growth. It takes a fair amount of preparation, but provides an excellent demonstration of these issues and offers student involvement.
Lesson Three: Water, a Renewable Resource? Student Reading 2, pp. 59-62.
Activity 14, Part 2: Water Use Audit. This activity has discussion and a home audit of students’ water use.
Lesson Four: The Car and the Environment
Activity 15 has a four page student worksheet, discussion questions and suggestions for additional activities concerning the environmental impact of cars.
Lesson Five: Putting a Price Tag on Natural Resource Use
Activity 16 asks students to choose how they would spend their limited natural resource credits. Discussion questions and further activities are provided.
Lesson Six: Eco-Ethics
Activity 21 gives 12 dilemmas with the design that each student would discuss his/her dilemma in a small group with time for comment. The activity is designed to “give students the opportunity to examine their own values and beliefs as they relate to the environment, population and social issues, while gaining an understanding of the complex issues in many of today’s environmental debates.”
Lesson Seven: Sustainable Communities and Growth: Student Reading 4 pp. 161-163 and pp. 170-171.
Activity 27 Students read an article excerpted from the the September 10, 1995 Dallas Morning News, debate the dilemma of growth in Wimberley, Texas and write position papers concerning growth from various perspectives.
Lesson Eight: Creating Indicators for Community Quality of Life
Activity 28 has the class create ten indicators that would measure long-term or sustainable quality of life in their community.
Extension: This project could be introduced early in the unit, and would serve to illustrate the differences between U.S. lifestyles and those of other countries.
Students choose a country for a report in which they 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 which shows the lifestyle/environment of one segment of his/her country to depict the above listed topics. (Standards 1.16, 5.29, 5.30 Visual Arts) Students should provide captions with credits and a brief explanation of the art work.
Students give brief oral reports about their countries (Standard 1.15). A class discussion of the similarities and differences in their countries would bring the unit to a close.
* available on loan from VPA
Books:
Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel
Women in the Material World by Faith d’Alusio and Peter Menzel
The Material World books are great resources. These “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 topic information.
Our Endangered Planet: Population Growth by Suzanne Wincker and Mary M. Rodgers, 1991, Minneapolis: Lerner Publication Co., 64 pages $15.95 for grades 5-8
Videos: (see Population and Sustainable Living Resource Guide for more information) World Population (6 minutes) ZPG*
Publications:
Connections, Linking Population and the Environment 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 Teen 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 has produced a similar Standards Based Unit using Population Reference Bureau’s (PRB) high school curriculum, Connections, Linking Population and the Environment. VPA has also produced elementary and middle school Standards Based Units on human impact. VPA is available for school programs and teachers’ workshops.