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:
| Grade Level | Undergraduate |
| Discipline | Social Sciences, Biological Sciences |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Sociology, Demography, Population Trends and Patterns, Population Density, Urbanization, Fertility and Mortality Rates, Human Ecology, Human Health, Pandemic, Epidemiology, Covid-19 Pandemic |
| Climate Topic | Climate and Health, Climate and the Anthroposphere, Climate and the Biosphere, Climate and Society, Disasters and Hazards |
| Location | Global |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required | 70-90 min |
| Share | |
| Resource Download |
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.
Teaching Module (30 min)
Use the teaching module, ‘Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment’ by OpenStaxTM to teach your students about demography, population trends and patterns, fertility and mortality rates, demographic theories, and urbanization. Describe the changing 2 Step-by-step User Guide 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.
Reading (10 min)
Use the article, ‘How Demographic Changes Make Us More Vulnerable to Pandemics Like the Coronavirus’ by Toshiko Kaneda and Charlotte Greenbaum for Population Research Bureau (PRB) to describe how current population trends enable viral transmission and raise the possibility of a pandemic such as COVID-19. Discuss how population mobility has enabled viral transmission across the world and population density has determined the rate of transmission of the disease. Explain how urbanization has greatly influenced the viral transmission of COVID-19. Further, discuss the vulnerability of a population due to age related pattern of mortality. Finally, emphasize how these demographic changes make populations vulnerable to pandemics.
Reading (10 mins)
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.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity (20-40 min)
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.
Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation
Use the tools and the concepts learned so far to discuss and determine answers to the following questions:
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
| 1 | Teaching Module | An activity module, ‘2019 World Population Data Sheet’ by Population Reference Bureau (PRB) to enable students to analyze population data of various countries and regions of the world.
This can be accessed here. |
| 2 | Reading | An article, ‘Climate Change Impacts and Emerging Population Trends: A Recipe for Disaster?’ by Population Reference Bureau (PRB).
This can be accessed here . |
| 3 | Reading | An article, ‘Climate Change and Infectious Diseases’ published by the World Health Organization (WHO) about the link between climate change and the occurrence and transmission of infectious diseases.
This can be accessed here. |
| 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’ | By Toshiko Kaneda and Charlotte Greenbaum for Population Research Bureau (PRB) |
| 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 | Population Research Bureau (PRB) World Health Organization (WHO) |
| Grade Level | Undergraduate |
| Discipline | Social Sciences, Biological Sciences |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Demography, Population Trends and Patterns, Population Density, Urbanization, Fertility and Mortality Rates, Human Ecology Moriculture, Sericulture, Mulberry, Mulberry Cultivation, Silkworm, Plant |
| Climate Topic | Climate and the Anthroposphere, Climate and the Biosphere |
| Location | Global |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required | 70-90 min |
| Share | |
| Download The Resource |
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.
Teaching Module (30 min)
Use the teaching module, ‘Introduction to Population, Urbanization, and the Environment’ by OpenStaxTM to teach your students about demography, population trends and patterns, fertility and mortality rates, demographic theories, and urbanization. Describe the changing 2 Step-by-step User Guide 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.
Reading (10 min)
Use the article, ‘How Demographic Changes Make Us More Vulnerable to Pandemics Like the Coronavirus’ by Toshiko Kaneda and Charlotte Greenbaum for Population Research Bureau (PRB) to describe how current population trends enable viral transmission and raise the possibility of a pandemic such as COVID-19. Discuss how population mobility has enabled viral transmission across the world and population density has determined the rate of transmission of the disease. Explain how urbanization has greatly influenced the viral transmission of COVID-19. Further, discuss the vulnerability of a population due to age related pattern of mortality. Finally, emphasize how these demographic changes make populations vulnerable to pandemics.
Reading (10 mins)
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.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity (20-40 min)
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.
Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation
Use the tools and the concepts learned so far to discuss and determine answers to the following questions:
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
| 1 | Teaching Module | An activity module, ‘2019 World Population Data Sheet’ by Population Reference Bureau (PRB) to enable students to analyze population data of various countries and regions of the world. This can be accessed here. |
| 2 | Reading | An article, ‘Climate Change Impacts and Emerging Population Trends: A Recipe for Disaster?’ by Population Reference Bureau (PRB). This can be accessed here . |
| 3 | Reading | An article, ‘Climate Change and Infectious Diseases’ published by the World Health Organization (WHO) about the link between climate change and the occurrence and transmission of infectious diseases. This can be accessed here. |
| 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’ | By Toshiko Kaneda and Charlotte Greenbaum for Population Research Bureau (PRB) |
| 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 | Population Research Bureau (PRB) World Health Organization (WHO |
