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II. Human Population Dynamics
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Six Billion Human Beings
This is a good interactive site that loads quickly and works well with a teacher-designed worksheet. I use it as a homework assignment when introducing human population growth. The home page starts with a global population clock and an interactive tool that shows the growth in population since the student was born. Students can then continue with the tool to find the average number of children born to women on various continents, which factors lower fertility rates, and how marital age and home continent effect birth rates. Moving the cursor to different continents allows the student to make comparisons of cultural patterns and population growth.
Another interactive tool explores the death rate and leading causes for death. Students can determine the number of babies that were born in their birth year that are now dead for each continent, compare their position to the rest of the population over the next 50 years, and learn about global population growth over the last 10,000 years. The last section, Questions for the Future, starts with five excellent discussion questions on future problems and then gives a brief outline for each question.
 Six Billion Human Beings
POPClocks
This site from the U.S. Census Bureau gives an estimate of the United States' and global populations. It is updated when you hit the Refresh button on your browser. Clicking on the clocks gives a brief explanation of how the estimates are made.
POPClocks
Animated Map of U.S. Population Growth
The map shows the distribution of population over between 1790 and 1990 in 10-year increments. (It takes three to four minutes to download with a 56k modem.) You can follow westward expansion, Mormons in Utah, California goldfields, and eventually the growth of mega cities. Once the page is loaded, it recycles and jumps every 10 years in about three to four seconds for a good effect.
Animated Map of U.S. Population Growth
Population Pyramids from IDB
his is a very useful site. A student can pick from a list of well over 100 countries to obtain population pyramids for the year 2000 and then the projections for 2025 and 2050. There is also an option for an animated sequence from 1950 to 2050 in five-year increments. I ask my students to pick three countries: one developed, one developing, and one undeveloped. They then analyze the three pyramids for each country and discuss why the profile changes the way it does, paying particular attention to how the pyramid varies in the youngest and oldest parts of the population. They then try to find differences in the male/female ratios. How does the population fare as time progresses? How does the total population vary? Will things improve for the people or degrade? Why or why not?
Then for 2000, they try to analyze how the population would be effected by events such as the increase of the marital age, war, spread of effective birth control, outbreak of cholera, beginning of a social security system, economic boom, enactment of child labor laws, the employment of women, etc.
Population Pyramids from IDB
Suggested Web Sites
The Teachers' Corner contains links to suggested Web sites. The College Board neither endorses, controls the content of, nor reviews the external Web sites included here. Please note that following links to external Web sites will open a new browser window. If you discover a link that does not work, please let us know by sending an e-mail to apctechsupport@collegeboard.org.
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