Predicting World Population (6-7 grades)

Content to be taught:  Using estimation to make a forecast.

Learning Objectives:

Given World Population data, the students will be able to analyze the data and predict the growth of the world’s population, creating a poster during group work.

Procedures

Phase 1:  (2 min.): The teacher will explain to the students that they will be looking at data from the past, then using mathematical patterns to predict future data values.  The teacher then will number the students off for groups.

Phase 2:  (10-15 min.): The students will get into groups and predict what the world’s population will be in 30 years. (Chart follows).  The teacher will walk around and help the groups where needed.

Phase 3: (5 min.): The teacher then will have each group report out their findings.  Also the teacher will ask each group these questions: (What strategies did your group use to find a pattern in the data?  How did you extend the mathematical pattern that your group found?)

Phase 4:  (10-15 min.): The teacher then will have each group work on the following problems together.  The groups will predict the population of each country in the year 2030 (chart follows).  They will also explain how they found a pattern for each set of data and describe any differences that they noticed between the pattern for Yugoslavia and pattern for Kenya.

Post Instructional Tasks

For homework the students will predict the next two terms in each number sequence.  Evaluation will be based on their homework and their performance in groups.