This fall, Dr. Amy Roberts was teaching a required social studies methods course for 27 future elementary teachers at the University of Wyoming and had a wonderful experience providing Population Education resources. Dr. Roberts attended PopEd’s “train the trainer” Leadership Institute last month and shared how she incorporated newfound strategies into her course.

Teaching Elementary History Concepts with PopEd

From Dr. Roberts: I returned to class this week at the University of Wyoming inspired and eager to put what I learned at the PopEd Leadership Institute into practice. Since the pre-service teachers had already attended a previous Population Education workshop, I shared the lesson I was responsible for during the small group work on Sunday: Oh, How We’ve Grown.

Trainers, including Dr. Roberts on the right, at PopEd’s Leadership Institute making a population timeline from the lesson Oh, How We’ve Grown.

My UW class was completing a unit on history, with concepts such as “time,” “change over time,” “cause/effect”, “change”, “chronology,” and “multiple perspectives.” All units include the concept of citizenship in a democracy/importance of teachers’ responsibility to nurture students at all grade levels with the knowledge, skills, and values of citizenship in a democracy.

Using the “Dot” Video as an Inquiry Hook

As a hook, we watched the World Population video and I asked students to consider: If your parents are about 45-50 years old, what was the world population when they were your age? Nearly all estimated 6-7 billion, so they were surprised to learn it was only 4-4.5 billion in 1975-1980.

We then revisited the video’s ending in 2050: You will be your parents’ age then. How might your life be the same or different with a global population of over 9 billion? This prompted rich cause-and-effect connections to our current unit.

Population Timeline Lets Student Visualize Rapid Growth

To deepen their understanding, we constructed the population timeline from Part 2 of the Oh, How We’ve Grown lesson and physically cut it at key points to visualize how rapidly population growth has accelerated. They were shocked!

I truly appreciate the engaging materials and thoughtful strategies you shared – they translated seamlessly into meaningful learning for our entire group. [end]

Interested in Presenting PopEd Workshops?

Educators interested in facilitating Population Education workshops are invited to apply to our Trainers Network. PopEd Trainers hold teacher training workshops at K-12 schools, universities, and conferences in their areas. Learn more about the Trainers Network and Leadership Institutes, and consider joining our volunteer team!