Classroom Activities
This unit takes place over seven 90-minute class periods, with some activities taking more than one class period to complete.
Day 1: Introduction
On the first day of this unit, students are charged with completing three tasks: determining their “population awareness,” reading the article about India’s proposed two-child policy, and creating and revising a unit learning map.
Awareness Quiz
In their introduction to his book Factfulness, Hans Rosling asks readers to take a short quiz to benchmark their understanding of the world.41 The quiz is thirteen multiple choice questions on topics ranging from the percentage of girls who finish primary school to global population distribution and access to modern technologies like vaccines and reliable electricity. Students start the same way Rosling starts his book, with this quiz and a debrief on the results. This activity should take between 15-20 minutes.
India’s Proposed Two-Child Policy
Students read the article from the introduction to the unit. They use annotating strategies as they read to mark important information and vocabulary, as well as point out content that they have questions about. We discuss the article as a class, and students pull from their annotations to establish common understandings and lingering questions. This should take about 10 minutes in total.
Create Your Own Learning Map
Students are given a brief introduction to the concepts and terminology associated with the DTM and then complete their own learning maps using those concepts and terms. An example of a map is provided in Figure 4. Students start by organizing the key concepts surrounding the DTM, including the phases, causes, population pyramids, consequences, and designing solutions. Then, they attempt to organize the sub-categories for each. Students are encouraged to collaborate with one another on their learning maps. These maps serve as a useful self-assessment tool throughout the unit as a sort of roadmap to understanding and at the end of the unit when students should be able to explain all of the concepts and terms from their learning map in some level of detail.
Figure 4: Example learning map for the Demographic Transition Model unit.
Students are encouraged to make use of digital learning tools such as Google Jamboards, Google Drawings, or Prezi. However sticky notes/poster board learning maps are also encouraged for students who wish to have a physical document rather than an electronic one. When students finish their maps they share with the larger class community. At this point I share my own version and we work towards a single, agreed-upon map that covers the scope of the entire unit. This document does not get graded as it is more useful as a self-assessment tool than an end-product. Completing this activity should take between 30-40 minutes.
If time allows, I conclude class is concluded by showing students a video clip of human population through time from the American Museum of Natural History website.42 Otherwise, students watch the video for homework in order to prepare for the next class.
Days 2-4: Digging Deeper into the DTM
Over the next three days, students explore the details of the demographic transition, digging deep into the phases, causes, criticisms/modifications, connections to other concepts, and the consequences of the demographic transition.
Day 2: Phases and Causes
The first part of this day is dedicated to examining the four phases of the DTM and their causes. Students complete guided notes from an interactive lecture. At this point they have already completed the textbook section on this topic, so the lecture is limited in detail and more to address any early misconceptions and to provide clarification where necessary. The second part is for students to examine the case study countries. Students work in small groups and use population data and other indicators from Data Commons place explorer43 to identify the phase of the DTM their country is in. Students then identify and explain the indicators they used to make their determination and record it on poster-size sticky notes. The class engages in a gallery walk to gather information. They also add sticky notes with observations or questions for each group as an extra layer of peer review. Each group must answer any questions for the whole class.
Day 3: Connecting the DTM to HDI and Population Pyramids
It is important for students to understand that the DTM doesn’t exist in isolation. Instead it is part of a larger demographic analysis that should include connections to other socioeconomic indicators like the HDI. Students read a short article about the HDI from Ourworldindata.org and examine the following graphs from the site: “Human Development Index,” “Children per woman vs Human Development Index”, and “Human Development Index vs GDP Per Capita.”44 Students record a list of observations and questions about each graph. As a class, we discuss what conclusions can be made from these graphs and what connections we can make to the DTM. Specifically, students connect their case study country’s HDI with its phase in the DTM (their findings should match those in Table 1). This activity should take about 15-20 minutes.
Then students move on to population pyramids. Like with the phases of the DTM, this is a topic they have already read about in their text, so they are relatively familiar with it. Students are first given population data and an Excel tutorial to generate a pyramid for their case-study country. Some groups are likely to be more proficient with Excel and the commands, while others may struggle to move from step to step. For that reason, I go through each step on the projector with the class using my own data so that students can see what to do and what to expect for each step. Those who don’t need that level of support can use the written instructions to work at their own pace. Once students have completed their pyramids, they share the diagram with the entire class so that everyone can see the differences between our case study countries. Since they already know what phase of the DTM each country is in, they can make quick connections to the shape of each country’s diagram and its DTM phase, freeing up time to dig deeper into the pyramids and what we can interpret from them. Students are asked to consider the symmetry and what leads to such lop-sided pyramids and any consequences that may arise. Students are also asked to project future population growth given the shape of the diagrams. Finally, students are asked to consider the connection between HDI, phase of the DTM, and the shape of their country’s pyramid. This activity should take 60-65 minutes.
Day 4: Consequences
Because the environmental consequences of the DTM are independent units in my course, students only get a preview here. Students are first asked to come up with a list of potential environmental issues that might arise from a growing population. In my experience they are good at picking out the big ones, like climate change and pollution. In some cases, they may even dance around the idea of urban land development or deforestation depending on the year. But when pressed for details about why a growing population causes those things they struggle. This is an opportunity to engage students in some higher order thinking that will eventually provide excellent context for the forthcoming units on those topics. Engaging them in this process revolves around getting them to think in terms of cause and effect. They know the larger cause (population growth) and the larger effects (climate change, pollution, and urban land use). Now they just need to connect the dots. I help them connect those dots using simple questions, similar to a lawyer examining a well-prepared witness.
For climate change, it might go like this: Q1) what happens as there are more people on the planet? A1) we need to produce more food for them to eat. Q2) what happens as we increase food production? A2) more land is cleared for agriculture. Q3) does that increase or decrease the ability of that land to store carbon? A3) decrease. Q4) what does most modern agriculture rely on? A4) fossil fuels. Q5) what do you think happens to the number of cars, buses, trains, and other transportation vehicles as the population increases? A5) they increase. Q6) and what do most of those vehicles emit? A7) CO2. At this point I summarize their responses and provide them with a written or diagrammed version. The questions I ask are greatly dependent on the prior knowledge of my students and vary any time I use this technique. But in order to ensure that students are successful in an activity like this I make sure to sprinkle in nuggets of information in prior units or in discussions.
Pollution and urban land use are probably best kept together for this exercise. A series of questions and answers might look like this: Q1) what happens as more people drive cars? A1) they emit more “stuff” Q2) do you think that “stuff” is good for the planet, or for human health? A2) no. Q3) and all those people are probably consuming more electricity right? A3) yes. Q4) and where does most of that electricity come from? A4) fossil fuel combustion. Here it would be useful to pause and introduce some of the major pollutants and their secondary products, including sulfur and nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ozone, and smog. Q5) and what are those people driving and parking on? A5) asphalt or concrete. Q6) and do those materials allow water to infiltrate? A6) No. Q7) So where does that water go? A7) it runs off. Q8) Do you think that is good for local streams and other bodies of water? A8). No. Here then is a good place to stop and briefly introduce the idea of urban flooding and the issues it can cause, including back-ups of combined sewer systems, stream bank erosion, and the transfer of contaminants like sediment, oil, and other urban runoff products into local waterways. Again, these questions and their responses vary, and students are given a lot of leeway in order to keep their confidence high. As before, I provide a recap to the questions and answers and written and/or diagram for students. Completing both sets of questioning and summarization should take about 20-30 minutes.
Students conclude the day by reading about the IPAT concept from their textbook and exploring ecological footprints on footprintcalculator.org.45 Since the website is a bit dense, students are given considerable time to explore their own footprint before being given license to modify their answers to see how their footprint responds. Together these activities should take 30-40 minutes.
Days 5-6: Design Thinking
After learning about the details of the DTM, students learn about how the design thinking process can help solve some of the problems associated with a large-scale demographic shift.
Day 5: Introduction to the Design Process
To start, students are shown the design thinking process in Figure 3 and asked to consider it one step at a time. Students should consider the following questions: why is it important to begin with the empathize step? What does it mean to fully articulate the problem before deciding how to address it with technology? What does “ideating” mean to them? and Why is important to prototype and test whatever technology you develop? How is that an iterative process? Then, I lead students through an example of how this process plays out using the anecdote of the development of the infant incubator and its subsequent modification for use in places with technological limitations.
Now that students have examined the design thinking process and seen an example, it is their turn to address a problem associated with the demographic transition phase that their assigned country is currently in. They can design solutions to environmental, social, cultural, or economic problems that their country may face. Students work in small groups to begin the empathizing and defining stages. They are given 10 minutes to complete each process. By the end of this class period they need to have a well-defined problem that they can begin ideating around. Students are encouraged to begin the ideating process before the next class period begins.
Day 6: Design Something “Technologically Appropriate”
Student groups start this class period by sharing their problem statements with the larger class community using elevator pitches (90 second segments where they need to communicate the most important information related to their problem statement). The class is encouraged to ask clarifying questions and provide constructive feedback where appropriate. The idea behind this activity is to make sure each group has a solid understanding of the problem they are going to ideate and innovate around before moving to the next step. This should take about 20 minutes in total.
Once each group presents and gets feedback on their problem, they then move to the ideating phase. Hopefully they began this process informally for homework and have some general ideas about solutions to their problem that can be explored and refined given the feedback from the problem statement sharing. Groups are given 15 minutes to complete this process.
Students then move to the proto-typing stage of the design process, which will take place three 10-minute rotations. They are encouraged to work on paper and pencil or the notepad tool on their Chromebook. After each 10-minute rotation, groups must share their progress with a partner group. During this process groups provide immediate feedback to one another, ensuring that the design is grounded in the work they have done in empathizing, defining, and ideating. Groups then complete another 10-minute rotation. By the end of the period they will have had thirty minutes to complete their design and three rounds of feedback to use on improving it.
The final step is then to prepare a short 5-minute presentation on their design process. The presentations should be grounded in the demographics of that specific country. That is, the birth rate, death rate, growth rate, fertility rate, and stage of the DTM should set the stage for whatever prototype the group presents. Groups should explain how they used the demographic information to decide on a problem to solve and how their product will solve it. Students are given the remainder of the period to prepare these presentations, which should be around 15-20 minutes.
Day 7: Review, Revise, and Update Learning Maps and Design Presentations
The final day of the unit is split between two major activities. First, students revise their learning maps. Then, they present on their country, design process, and product.
Learning Maps:
Students start the final day of the unit by reviewing their learning maps from Day 1. Their task is to ensure that they have increased their understanding of the DTM as a whole by being able to explain the phases and their characteristics, the causes and consequences of the DTM, and how human-centered design can address some of those consequences. This activity is intended to be an open-ended question and answer sessions aimed at filling knowledge gaps or correcting misconceptions. I typically allot 15-20 minutes for activities such as this.
Design Presentations
The bulk of the final day is allotted for student groups to present their country and their design to the class. As stated above, the presentation should cover the demographic basics of their country, how they used that information to inform the selection of the problem and solution, and how their design can solve that problem. They are graded on a simple 3-2-1 rubric for each of those categories, along with a “professionalism” category. Each presentation should be between 5-7 minutes, with a few minutes allowed for questions at the end.
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