Basics

Lower Elementary (K-2)

Activities

» Crowding Can Be Seedy
Students experience the effects of increasing population density when they pretend to be sprouting plants in a garden.

» Population Circle
A simulation of the history of World Population Growth

» Who Polluted the River?
Through an interactive story, students learn how our rivers have been affected by our growing population.

Upper Elementary (3-5)

Activities

» Earth: Apple of our Eye? (Elementary)
A demonstration of worldwide land distribution -- the instructor slices an apple to represent land used for farming.

Intermediate (6-8)

Activities

» Food for Thought
A simulation where students populate "continents" drawn to scale in yarn on the classroom floor and discuss how people and resources are distributed worldwide.

» Power of the Pyramids
Students construct and interpret "population pyramid" graphs for several countries.

» World Population Video
This seven minute film depicts the history of human population growth and distribution from 1 AD through the present, then projects future growth to the year 2030.

Eight frames of the video are presented here: the opening in 1 AD; then skipping ahead to 1800, when the population reached the first billion, followed by the years in which the population reached each successive billion; and the closing frame at 2030, showing the 8.2 billion people expected to inhabit the Earth by then if current growth rates continue.