Population Growth
By Mark Heintz
Sep 12, 2019

Day 23

Student contributions by Group Four

Overview of the Period

I started class with a map of the world displaying the sex ratios at birth by country. I asked a few questions to the students to get them to analyze the map. Then they came up with ideas as to why certain countries have higher or lower sex ratios at birth.  The questions and theories as to why it was were great to hear.

After the sex ratio map, I gave a brief lecture on Malthusian Theory of Population. Once the students understood that his theory has not come true since he wrote it, they watched  Hans Rosling give a TED talk on the global population growth. The students wrote questions they had while watching the video and then uploaded them to their projects.

How have you grown as a learner?

I believe we have grown as learners since we are answering our own questions.

Some of their questions were:

How did the industrialize world industrialize?

What is the West?

How long did it take to get the world’s population to 3 billion?

Why did it grow so much quicker since then?

Why was the there a big gap in the population in parts of the world?

Why is the world so split financially?

How can we keep avoiding climate change and keep evolving?

Why does climate change get involved in being rich or poor?

Why is green energy important?

Will the gap between the rich and poor continue to grow?

How does a country get a stronger economy?

Are there any other factors that influence a women’s fertility rate?

Why do poorer countries have more children?

My Response

I gave a fairly standard lesson today. Most of the learning was prescribed. They all did the same things at the same time. However, I get satisfaction that the students are recognizing they are becoming learners because they are answering their own questions. I think that sums up what I hope for. They come up with the questions they want to know and then they answer them.

It is a beautiful thing to be in charge of your own learning.

Subscribe

Archives

Goodreads

Categories

%d bloggers like this: