This video provides an animated map of human population growth and settlement locations throughout human history.
It provides numerous historical references as the map continues to add one dot for every 1 million people added to the planet and it provides estimates for the future size of the human population.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The facts are presented clearly and the music in the background is captivating.
Students get a very clear picture of how quickly human population growth increased over the last 200 years and the locations where our population is the most dense.
Additional Prerequisites
There may be an advertisement at the beginning of the video.
The teacher may want to download the video from the link provided to show offline.
Differentiation
This resource could be used in a lesson that focuses on world history, human civilizations, population dynamics, sustainability, or biodiversity loss.
Science and biology classes could use this video as an example of exponential growth and relate it to lessons about ecosystems and the natural factors that keep populations from growing exponentially.
The resource provides the history of human population growth and expansion from AD 1 - 2016. It is insightful to enable students to predict population growth or decline for 2100. The facts presented are accurate and this is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Science
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
8.ESS3.4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
