Lesson Plan

Grades 3-5, 6-8

Oh, How We’ve Grown!

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20 minutes (Part 1); 20 minutes (Part 2)

SUBJECTS: Math, Social Studies

TOPICS: Doubling Time, Math - Population Growth Curves, World Population Trends/History

Resource Overview

Students experience the changing pace of population growth by actively simulating the Earth’s population growth over a 500-year span and then creating a timeline that visually depicts the population doubling through history.

Students will be able to:
  • Describe trends of human population growth.
  • Prepare a timeline that graphically portrays population doubling through history.
  • Explain the basic attributes of exponential growth (slow start, fast finish).

Features of This Resource

  • Students build a timeline using formal units of measurement to create the scale
  • Lesson covers demographic changes during Industrialization
  • Real population data is used and graphed

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