Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking connection)

Teacher: Allison Bramanti

Content & Title:
Grade Level: 3rd
Population Growth on
EarthWhat is
population growth?
Standards:
These will be addressed over the course of the entire 5-day Unit.
Concept 1: Changes in Environments
Describe the interactions between human populations, natural hazards, and the environment.
PO 1. Describe the major factors that could impact a human population (e.g., famine, drought, disease,
improved transportation, medical breakthroughs).
PO 2. Describe the beneficial and harmful impacts of natural events and human activities on the environment
(e.g., forest fires, flooding, pesticides).
Concept 2: Science and Technology in Society Understand the impact of technology.
PO 1. Identify ways that people use tools and techniques to solve problems.
PO 2. Describe the development of different technologies (e.g., communication, entertainment,
transportation, medicine) in response to resources, needs, and values.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
Students should be able to define population growth through an example or a one sentence
description (Exit Ticket).
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):

(formative): Students will be assessed through formative assessments during this lesson that include
class participation, group participation, share alouds, journal paragraph writing, and their exit ticket.
Students must actively engage in each of these activities by participating at least once within the class
and small group discussions. More participation will show the student exceeds expectations while no
participation will suggest the student fails to meet expectations. Each of these outcomes will reflect in
the students grade. Students must also complete their journal responses and exit tickets to receive
full points. Completion of each of these assessments will receive full points. Students who do not
complete the assessments will have grades that reflect their incompletion (wont receive the points).

(summative): To be given at the end of the unit.

Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from simple to more
complex):
Explain how Earths population is changing over time
Hypothesize reasons why Earths population is changing over time
Think about how population change can affect individuals
Think about how population change can affect our world as a whole
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what students are
doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)
Population growth on Earth should be taught to students because it impacts nearly every other sustainability
topic. Students need to first understand population and what influences the population before they can
understand why its so important to think about sustainability. Its important that our young generations of

students are learning about population and its constant growth so that they can begin using futures thinking
to create sustainable solutions to this problem.
Through this lesson students learn what population growth is and begin to think about how population
growth might affect them personally and, greater than that, how it might affect our planet. By engaging
students in the learning of this material, teachers can create informed, innovative and sustainable thinkers
that will be able to lead our world in the future.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this lesson)
Students should know what population is/ how population is defined.
Students should be familiar with basic concepts of time periods and chronology.
Students should be familiar with how to read a graph or table of information.
Students should know how to write a proper paragraph with an introductory sentence and concluding
sentence.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)
Students might believe that the Earth can sustain a continually increasing population.
Students might think that population growth is only positive and will not personally affect them in any
negative ways.
Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)
Critical thinking skills
Reading Comprehension
Listening skills
Teamwork
Writing skills
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your lesson plan connects
to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of thinking you selected and used in
this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included meaningfully in the lesson plan.)
Futures thinking requires an individual to make decisions by taking into consideration the potential outcomes
those decisions may create and cause. By teaching individuals to use the concept of futures thinking, they
will be more aware of their impact on the world around them. This type of thinking is especially useful when
attempting to find solutions to sustainability challenges because it requires individuals to think about the
impact their solution might have and plan for that impact. This type of thinking allows for creativity and
innovation to occur that might help solve challenges that were originally only confronted with a mindset to
focus on a present solution, not a long-lasting solution.
This lesson plan connects to Futures Thinking because it requires students to think about how population
growth affects individuals and the world currently, while encouraging students to consider how population
growth will affect individuals and the world if the world population continues to grow at its current rate
without any type of change or sustainable solutions implemented to conserve resources.
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?) No safety concerns.
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. (to explore) What is population growth/ population change? How is Earths population changing
over time?
2. (to elaborate) How might population change impact you personally (Think about population change
on a smaller scale)? How might population change impact Earth and its people (Think about
population change on a larger scale)?

Key vocabulary: (list and define)

1. Population Growth: change in the size of a
populationwhich can be either positive or
negativeover time, depending on the balance
of births and deaths
2. Futures Thinking: requires an individual to
make decisions by taking into consideration the
potential outcomes those decisions may create
and cause
3. Population: the total number of people living
in a country, city, or other area
4. Census: an official count and statistical survey
of a population, usually conducted at periodic
intervals

Materials: (list item and possible quantity)

1. Beans (approx. 16,300 or scale down to 1,630)
2. Metal Pot
3. Computer (enough for each student)
4. 7 Billion and Counting! Worksheet (enough
copies for each student to have one)
http://www.readworks.org/passages/seven-billionand-counting
5. Paper for every student
6. Pencil or another writing utensil for every
student

Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student attention, pose a question
(IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
Perform the Hear the People attention-getter
Listen and pay attention during the activity
activity to introduce students to the topic of
Think about the current population on
population growth on Earth following the
Earth and how the world population has
lesson plan instructions provided within this
changed over time
document: http://humaneeducation.org/wp Ask questions if they do not understand
content/uploads/2012/11/HearPeople2013.pdf
what the standards, objectives, or sub Ask students to think about the current
objectives are asking of them for the unit
population (approx. 7.5 billion people) on Earth
and how the world population has changed over
time
Officially state and introduce the unit,
Population Growth on Earth, and share the
standards, objectives, and sub-objectives that
will be met through the 5-day unit and will be
already written on the board to start the day
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
The teacher can differentiate within this opening section by providing students with a copy of the Hear the
People lesson plan description so that students can follow along with each step of the listening activity. The
teacher can provide ELLstudents with a copy of the lesson plan description in Spanish, as well. The teacher
should additionally write the prompted question, standards, objective, and sub-objectives on the board and
have printed out copies available in English and Spanish so students know what to think about throughout
the lesson and unit.
The teacher uses a best practice when performing the introductory, attention-getter activity because it allows
students to draw their own conclusions through active listening instead of passively consuming information
such as in a lecture format.
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials to discover information
that will help them answer the question posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow,
especially for younger students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of
the lesson.

Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)

Students Will: (list all steps)
Provide each student with a copy of the 7
Read the 7 Billion and Counting!
Billion and Counting! Worksheet found here:
Worksheet thinking about and analyzing
http://www.readworks.org/passages/seventhe graph and information within the
billion-and-counting
worksheet to decide how population is
changing over time
Tell students to read the worksheet and think
Go to
about how the world population is changing
over time by looking at and analyzing the graph
http://www.worldometers.info/worldon the worksheet
population/ and explore and look at the
visual representations of population growth
Tell students that when they finish exploring the
over time represented on the website
worksheet they can log onto their computers to

Discuss in small groups how the world

explore and look at the visual representations of
population growth over time through the World
population is changing over time, drawing
Population Clock, tables, and graphs found on
ideas and conclusions from the two
this website:
resources provided above
http://www.worldometers.info/world Make sure to participate in small group
population/
discussion at least once in order to receive
Ask students to talk in small groups about how
full participation points during class
the world population is changing over time
according to these resources and encourage
every student to participate in their small group
discussion at least once
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
The teacher can choose to walk through these resources with the students if he/she thinks that they will need
additional explanation or scaffolding. The teacher could also have students explore the resources in pairs in
order to help better understand the information the resources are displaying or help read the information for
ELL students. The teacher can create small groups based on the students learning abilities so that every
group has students at every level of comprehension and can thus, better help one another understand the
concepts being discussed.
A best practice is utilized by allowing students to collaborate with their peers in order to help foster each
students understanding of the concepts.
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects student discoveries to
correct content terms/explanations, students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the
lesson sub-objectives by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Ask each small group to share out their
Share aloud their small groups answers
responses and thoughts about how the world
Watch the World Population Video and
population is changing over time
think about what influences the world
Guide students with prompting to reach the
population to change and grow over time
proper conclusions about population growth
making sure to validate that their ideas are good
and then leading them to notice that the world
population is growing quickly over time
Then, show students the World Population
Video to help review the discussed concepts and
conclusions about the world population growth:
http://www.populationeducation.org/content/w
orld-population-video

Ask students to think about how and why

population has changed and continues to change
over time while watching the video

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

The teacher can pass out a transcript of the video for students that need to read the words in order to follow
along with the video and comprehend what the video is saying. The teacher can offer this transcript in
Spanish for ELL students, as well. The teacher can also once again write the questions he/she would like
students to think about during the video on the board so that students can refer back to the questions as
needed. The teacher can write out the questions in Spanish for ELL students, as well.
A best practice is used when the teacher leads the class in a group discussion. This allows all ideas to be
considered and accepted, as well as allowing students to learn from one another and providing the teacher
with an opportunity to scaffold students learning through prompting, questioning, and guiding.
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and clarified in Explain
and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of this learning at a deeper level. Students
should be using higher order thinking in this stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If?
question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
Guide students through a writing activity asking
Think about how this smaller scale
them to take what theyve learned about
population change will impact their lives
population change and now think about the
and learning
impact of population change by looking at it on
Journal about the given scenario in at least
a smaller scale: Imagine you have just found
one to two paragraphs making sure to state
out that, next year, three times as many students
how the population change will personally
will attend your school. That means that the
affect their life and learning at school
student population will triple. How will sharing
books, seats, classrooms, and lockers with so
many more students affect your learning (Taken
from Making Connections Teachers Guide)?
Ask students to journal about their responses
and how they think population change will
affect them on this smaller scale in at least one
to two paragraphs of approximately five
sentences each
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
The teacher can provide students that struggle to write with a mind map or brainstorming chart that would
break down each part of the paragraph so that students could fill in the blanks instead of trying to construct
the paragraph on their own. The teacher could also modify the journal assignment and have students write
only three sentences instead of five sentences. If many students struggle with writing the teacher could pull
them aside to brainstorm ideas as a group and construct a paragraph response together.
A best practice within this section includes allowing students to draw their own conclusions and ideas based
on the concepts taught within the lesson in order to explore the topic on a deeper level and foster students
higher order thinking skills.
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps not
mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also serves as a closing, students should also have a chance
to summarize the big concepts they learned outside of the assessment.

Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Have students share aloud the implications of
Share out their journal responses and
the small scale population change within their
thoughts about how a population change in
own school
their school might affect their lives and
learning
Make sure students notice the negative
Consider how this relates to larger scale
impacts this population growth will most
likely have
population growth on Earth and what
implications larger changes might have on
Ask students to begin thinking about
humans and Earths resources
population change on a larger scale and how
people and resources all over the planet might
be impacted in comparsion to the smaller
scale impacts of population change within a
school setting
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
The teacher will check students understanding by asking them to describe what population growth is to their
neighbor and come to a conclusion about the definition writing their ideas down on a piece of paper as their
Exit Ticket. Then the teacher will prompt students to continue to think about the impacts that population
growth/decline has on both a smaller scale (their school) and a larger scale (the Earth) that theyve talked and
written about within the lesson. The teacher will finally ask students to begin thinking about what factors
might positively influence population growth and what factors might negatively influence population growth.
The teacher will inform the students that they will learn about and discuss these factors in more depth during
tomorrows lesson.
**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance the learning outcomes. In
each section where prompted, list the best practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.

Sources
Current World Population. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2016, from
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Making connections: Engaging students in language, literacy, and global issues: Teacher's
guide. (2010). Seattle, WA: Facing the Future.

Population Growth. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2016, from

http://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-andarchaeology/human-evolution/population-growth

Seven Billion and Counting. (2015). Retrieved November 24, 2016, from
http://www.readworks.org/passages/seven-billion-and-counting