People Come and People Go
Give me your tired and your poor...
a lesson on Population
by Timothy McDonnell
Victor Jr. High School
Victor, New York
CONNECTION TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS:
The geographically informed person knows and understands…
Std. 1 - How to use maps and other geographic representations,
tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from
a spatial perspectived.
Std. 3 - How to analyze the spatial organizations of people,
places and environments on Earth’s surface.
Std. 9 - The characteristics, distribution, and migration of
human populations on Earth’s surface.
Std. 18 - How to apply geography to interpret the present and
plan for the future.
CONNECTION TO THE NEW YORK STATE STANDARDS FOR MATH,
SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY:
Std. 3.1 - Students use mathematical reasoning to analyze mathematical
situations, make conjectures, gather evidence, and construct an argument.
Std. 3.4 - Students use mathematical modeling/multiple representation
to provide a means of presenting, interpreting, communicating, and connecting
mathematical information and relationships.
OBJECTIVES (to know, to do, and to be like)
1. Students will identify factors that cause increase and decrease
in population.
2. Students will calculate the percent of increase or decrease in a
population.
3. Students will create a choropleth map showing percent increase or
decrease in population.
4. Students will analyze a graph of population growth and make predictions
for the future.
MATERIALS: Activity Worksheet , population data about the Northeast and NY population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, regional map of New York State, calculators, graph paper, population graph of Rochester, NY .
PROCEDURES:
1. Discuss with students the major factors that cause the population
of a place to increase or decrease: births, deaths, migration. Explain
what is meant if net migration is positive or negative.
2. Students are assigned a state from the Northeast. Using a flow chart
and data from the Census Bureau, they compute the net increase in population
in the 1990’s. Then they determine the percent of increase.
3. Have the students exchange information with other members of the
class on the major factors in population increase and decrease for their
assigned state. (Many Northeast states have high international immigration
rates, but it is offset by high domestic emigration to the Sun Belt).
4. Now have students look at smaller units. New York State has been
divided up into eleven regions. Data has been compiled showing the population
of these regions for 1990 and 2000. Students determine the percent of increase
(or decrease) for each region. Then they construct a choropleth map to
graphically represent the percent of population growth.
5. Hopefully students will see that the population of the Northeast
is not growing very fast now, but that was not always the case. Have
students look over a population graph of Rochester, NY. Have them find
places of rapid growth, slow growth, and decline. Try to come up with explanations
for all sections of the graph.
SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSESSMENT:
1. Give students problems on percent of increase (not just population).
See if they can solve the problems and explain the procedure used.
2. Making choropleth maps is very useful in geography. See if students
can make another map using some other statistic, such as population density
or percent of college graduates.
3. See if students can design their own flow chart to determine growth.
ADAPTATIONS AND EXTENSIONS:
1. This activity concentrates most on New York, since that is my state.
Students can make choropleth maps for other Northeast states to see what
sections are gaining or losing population.
2. The calculations can be time-consuming. If students have a grasp
of mathematical skills involved, calculators can be used.
3. Population growth is a major topic for the Southwest Region. Compare
the growth patterns of each region and try to explain differences.
