Lesson Plan for Activity #3
Population Rate of Change


Lesson # 4

Overview:

Students determine the rate of change in U.S. population using historical U.S. Census Bureau information.

Objectives: 

  • Determine the best representation for displaying rate of change of a population
  • Identify periods with increasing, decreasing and/or stable rates of change
  • Determine the average annual rate of change for each decade of census data
  • Speculate on reasons for sudden increases or decreases in average annual rates of change
Notes to Teacher: 

Students will use U.S. census data Population, Housing Units, Area Measurements, and Density: 1790-1990 for this activity. This population data is available as a PDF document linked from the U.S. Census Bureau's web page Selected Historical Census Data (Item #1). Students can enter this data into a spreadsheet or data file to be used with a statistics program.  For many spreadsheets and statistics programs it will be important that students enter the earliest year first and continue up to the most recent year of data. Otherwise the charts and graphs will not display the data as would normally be expected. The same spreadsheet or data file they create for this activity will be used in subsequent lessons.

Links to spreadsheet and statistics programs can be found in the Reference Material section.

The U.S. Census Bureau also has historical census data for states and different regional areas. This can be found on the U.S. Census Bureau's web page Selected Historical Census Data (Item #1). The information provided in this document may be useful for some of the extension activities described in the Additional Explorations section.

An example of the types of charts and graphs produced in this and subsequent activities has been constructed and is available below. You can share these examples with your students at your discretion. The examples have been constructed using U.S. Census Bureau data for the Southern Region of the U.S. between 1950 and 1990. This data can be found in Population: 1790 - 1990 available on the U.S. Census Bureau's Historical Census Data web page linked above. 

Note: This is NOT the same data that students will use in their activities so their answers, graphs, and charts will be different from the example. Also, if additional years of data are added to this example, the charts and graphs will change. 

Population of Southern Region of U.S. (1950-1990)