« Make a Donation

About Program

» About Population Connection’s Education Program
» About Population Connection
» What is Population Education?
» How does population education fit in with my school curricula?
» Find out more...

About Population Connection’s Education Program
Population Connection’s Education Program is the only national, population education program with a strong emphasis on teacher training for educators of grades pre-K through 12.

Since 1975, the program has developed age-appropriate curricula to complement students’ science and social science instruction about human population trends and their impacts on natural resources, environmental quality and human well-being.

We provide hands-on training to over 12,000 teachers and student teachers annually in North America. Tens of thousands of teachers are introducing important population concepts to their students using these outstanding resources and millions of students are benefitting from them.

With an emphasis on hands-on learning and balanced discussion of different viewpoints, our program has earned a reputation for educational excellence. All Population Connection curriculum materials are classroom-tested, rigorously evaluated and frequently updated to be leaders in their content and approach. They are interdisciplinary, well-suited for a cooperative learning environment and classroom-ready.

About Population Connection
Population Connection (formerly ZPG) is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth's resources. We believe that overpopulation threatens the quality of life for people everywhere. We seek to protect the environment and ensure a high quality of life for present and future generations. Population Connection's advocacy programs aim to influence public policies, attitudes, and behavior on national and global population issues and related concerns.

What is population education?
It’s all about people — how the human race has grown and shaped the world around us. World population has quadrupled in the past century, changing the way we use natural resources and function as societies. Population education is the ultimate multi-disciplinary field; it’s ecology, human geography, anthropology, economics, biology, public health, sociology, environmental studies, history and civics all rolled into one, with a good bit of mathematics to help us understand where we’ve come from and where we might be headed.

How does population education fit in with my school curricula?
Population studies are explicitly included in national and state content standards for science, social studies, geography and environmental education. The latest math standards emphasize drawing connections to real-world situations and integrating math with other subject areas. For more information, read Population Education: Meeting the Standards.

Find out more...
Our activities: We have developed over 150 activities, most of which feature a student-centered, hands-on approach. If you're not sure where to begin, we recommend that you start with The Basics.

 

 

---

Our products: We've produced a variety of teaching kits and other resources for K-12 classrooms. Our perennial best-seller is our classic award-winning "dot" video, World Population. Over just seven minutes, students see a simulation of 2000 years of population growth, and watch in awe as our numbers grow from 170 million in 1 A.D. to almost 7 BILLION today.

 

---

Our workshops for teachers: We conduct hands-on workshops for teachers and future teachers throughout North America. Our sessions consistently receive outstanding ratings by workshop participants. Click here to find out about upcoming conference workshops.