Welcome to a new version of our website and the start of our PopEd Blogs.  We hope you’ll find many useful tools for the classroom and will keep checking back to see what’s new.

As you plan for the 2013-2014 school year, consider where Population Education fits in. In today’s classroom, it’s not simply enough for curriculum to address the subject matter. It has to be measurable against the latest standards and benchmarks, be adaptable for different kinds of learners, and build higher order skills for tomorrow’s workforce. Population education has long been integral to an understanding of our environment, life sciences, social sciences and more. But it also builds critical thinking and problem solving skills, encourages inquiry and sound reasoning as called for in the new Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. PopEd lesson plans seek to foster empathy and respect for human dignity that makes students dedicated global citizens, an important aspect of 21st Century Skills and International Baccalaureate Programs.

On this new website, we offer many new items and features to help teachers find the most appropriate activities to help students meet their educational goals.  Use our “Find a Lesson” search module to discover which PopEd activities and readings to download, connect those activities to your state’s latest standards, watch demo videos of some of our favorite classroom activities, stream our ever-popular “dot video” in your classroom, schedule a hands-on in-service or pre-service workshop, and learn about ways to get more involved with PopEd.

We’d also love to hear about ways that you are using PopEd activities in your classroom. Keep checking this space for more ideas on inspiring your students to think globally and to connect academic skills to real-world issues.