This lesson plan provides instructions and a PDF of words to use for a word web activity that allows students to identify the many connections between a growing human population and resources, the environment, and daily life.
Students can create their own words to see even more cause and effect relationships that are relevant to them.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This lesson allows students to make meaningful connections on their own and collaborate with others.
Students will use a graphic organizer to connect seemingly disparate concepts like freedom, shopping malls, and illness.
Additional Prerequisites
Teachers must enter an email address to access the PDF lesson plan and worksheet.
Optional resources for the lesson include construction or chart paper, markers, and magazine cutouts.
Differentiation
This lesson would be a great start to a larger learning unit about resource allocation, sustainability, Earth Overshoot Day, recycling, a circular economy, or ecosystems.
Other related resources include this video about the how humans have altered the planet, this interactive resource from Google Earth about our changing planet, and this video about the tragedy of the commons.
Scientist Notes
This resource attempts to equip students to understand the cause-effect relationships in population studies. This is recommended for the classroom.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
K-ESS3-1 Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 3: Developing Claims and Using Evidence
D3.4.3-5 Use evidence to develop claims in response to compelling questions.
Dimension 4: Communicating and Critiquing Conclusions
