As an Undergraduate Social Sciences or Biological Sciences teacher, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about demography,population trends, urbanization, and the role of demographics in the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and the increased risk of pandemics due to climate change.
In this lesson plan, students will be taught about population patterns, urbanization, and the relation of demography and the environment. This lesson plan will allow you to teach your students how demographic changes due to factors such as climate change, can make human populations more vulnerable to pandemics like COVID-19.
Through an interactive online activity, this lesson plan will enable students to apply understanding of demographics such as population density and mortality rates on the risk of transmission of an infectious disease like COVID-19 and on the efficacy of vaccination programs against it. Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a core topic in Social Sciences and Biological Sciences.
The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
1. learn about demography, population patterns and trends, and their relationship with the environment
2. explain what urbanization is and how it has affected human ecology
3. describe how demographic changes can affect the vulnerability of a population to pandemics such as COVID-19
4. discuss how climate change results in demographic changes and therefore raises the risk of pandemics in urban populations
| Grade Level | Undergraduate |
| Discipline | Social Sciences, Biological Sciences |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Human Health, Infectious Disease, COVID-19 Pandemic, Demography, Population Trends and Patterns, Population Density, Urbanization, Fertility and Mortality Rates, Human Ecology |
| Climate Topic | Climate and the Anthroposphere; Climate and the Biosphere |
| Location | Global |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required | 70-90 min |
Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.
Use the teaching module, ‘Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment’ by OpenS taxTM to teach your students about demography, population trends and patterns, fertility and mortality rates, demographic theories, and urbanization .Describe the changing demographics of a population from various sociological perspectives such as climate-induced human migrations. Finally, explain how urbanization has led to environmental concerns that are exacerbated due to climate change.
This can be accessed here.Use the report, ‘Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19’ by Jennifer B. Dowd et al. in PNAS to explain the demographic trends of COVID-19 transmission in a population. Emphasize on the relevance ofdemographic science in elucidating the population patterns observed in the rates of disease transmission and the associated mortality rates.
This can be accessed here.Use the report, ‘Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19’ by Jennifer B. Dowd et al. in PNAS to explain the demographic trends of COVID-19 transmission in a population. Emphasize on the relevance of demographic science in elucidating the population patterns observed in the rates of disease transmission and the associated mortality rates.
This can be accessed here.Use the interactive lab activity, ‘Disease Lab’ by Annenberg Learner, to enable students to understand the rate of transmission of various hypothetical diseases under changing demographic parameters. This activity can be conducted in conjunction with another lab activity- ‘Demographics Lab’ to better understand the demographic parameters under consideration. Direct the students to follow the instructions given in the activity sheets to analyze the results of the simulations and formulate answers to the given questions. Extend the activity to analyze the scenarios of disease progression with or without vaccination programs. Use the current population and mortality data rates in your region to run the simulations in the context of COVID-19 and summarize the findings.
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
<br>
1. What is demography and what are the demographic measurements for a population?
2. What is urbanization and how does it affect human ecology?
3. What is the relation of demography with the environment?
4. How does the study of demography help explain the rate of transmission and mortality rates of an infectious disease such as COVID-19?
5. How do demographic changes due to climate change increase the risk of pandemics?
Credits and copyrights
| 1 | Teaching module ‘Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment’ | By OpenStaxTM |
| 2 | Reading; ‘How Demographic Changes Make Us More Vulnerable to Pandemics Like the Coronavirus’ | Undergraduate |
| 3 | Reading; ‘Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19 | By Jennifer Beam Dowd, Liliana Andriano, David M. Brazel, Valentina Rotondi, Per Block, Xuejie Ding, Yan Liu, Melinda C. Mills. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. May 2020, 117 (18) 9696-9698. |
| 4 | Classroom/Laboratory Activity; ‘Disease Lab’ | By Annenberg Learner |
| 5 | Additional Resources | Undergraduate |
| 6 | Images | Undergraduate |
| Grade Level | Undergraduate |
| Discipline | Social Sciences, Biological Sciences |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Human Health, Infectious Disease, COVID-19 Pandemic, Demography, Population Trends and Patterns, Population Density, Urbanization, Fertility and Mortality Rates, Human Ecology |
| Climate Topic | Climate and the Anthroposphere; Climate and the Biosphere |
| Location | Global |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required | 70-90 min |
Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.
Use the teaching module, ‘Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment’ by OpenS taxTM to teach your students about demography, population trends and patterns, fertility and mortality rates, demographic theories, and urbanization .Describe the changing demographics of a population from various sociological perspectives such as climate-induced human migrations. Finally, explain how urbanization has led to environmental concerns that are exacerbated due to climate change.
This can be accessed here.Use the report, ‘Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19’ by Jennifer B. Dowd et al. in PNAS to explain the demographic trends of COVID-19 transmission in a population. Emphasize on the relevance ofdemographic science in elucidating the population patterns observed in the rates of disease transmission and the associated mortality rates.
This can be accessed here.Use the report, ‘Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19’ by Jennifer B. Dowd et al. in PNAS to explain the demographic trends of COVID-19 transmission in a population. Emphasize on the relevance of demographic science in elucidating the population patterns observed in the rates of disease transmission and the associated mortality rates.
This can be accessed here.Use the interactive lab activity, ‘Disease Lab’ by Annenberg Learner, to enable students to understand the rate of transmission of various hypothetical diseases under changing demographic parameters. This activity can be conducted in conjunction with another lab activity- ‘Demographics Lab’ to better understand the demographic parameters under consideration. Direct the students to follow the instructions given in the activity sheets to analyze the results of the simulations and formulate answers to the given questions. Extend the activity to analyze the scenarios of disease progression with or without vaccination programs. Use the current population and mortality data rates in your region to run the simulations in the context of COVID-19 and summarize the findings.
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
1. What is demography and what are the demographic measurements for a population? 2. What is urbanization and how does it affect human ecology?
3. What is the relation of demography with the environment?
4. How does the study of demography help explain the rate of transmission and mortality rates of an infectious disease such as COVID-19?
5. How do demographic changes due to climate change increase the risk of pandemics?
Credits and copyrights
| 1 | Teaching module ‘Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment’ | By OpenStaxTM |
| 2 | Reading; ‘How Demographic Changes Make Us More Vulnerable to Pandemics Like the Coronavirus’ | Undergraduate |
| 3 | Reading; ‘Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19 | By Jennifer Beam Dowd, Liliana Andriano, David M. Brazel, Valentina Rotondi, Per Block, Xuejie Ding, Yan Liu, Melinda C. Mills. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. May 2020, 117 (18) 9696-9698. |
| 4 | Classroom/Laboratory Activity; ‘Disease Lab’ | By Annenberg Learner |
| 5 | Additional Resources | Undergraduate |
| 6 | Images | Undergraduate |
