Populations Lesson Study Team Title: Impact of human population size on quality of life and the environment Authors: Scott Cooper, Anne Galbraith, Tim Gerber, Deb Hanmer, Dan Sutherland, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Contact: Scott Cooper Discipline or Field: Biology Course Name: General Biology Date: June 1, 2006

Course Description General Biology is an entry-level course for science majors taught in a large lecture setting of 100-140 students. The course is designed to give students a background in the fundamental concepts in biology and to prepare them for upper level courses. We focus on problem-solving skills and the ability to interpret biological data and form models based upon the theories discussed in lecture. This lesson was designed to fit into a unit on population biology and ecology. Executive Summary This lesson is designed to be taught in an ecology section that also includes basic population biology. The goal is for students to use their understanding of population growth to see how the populations of different countries will change over time. They then combine this with the per capita consumption patterns of those countries, to get a sense of the environmental impact of population growth in each country. To accomplish this, students are assigned specific variables to research for the USA, France and Tanzania. They are then asked to present their results in a powerpoint slide. Some of these slides are then presented in class, and used to initiate discussion on the roles of population size and consumption on the quality of life and impact on the environment. A goal is for students to see that both population size and per capita consumption contribute to demands on the environment. Students were able to make these connections and present their findings clearly. Observations of students in class revealed that they were not as engaged in the discussion as we would like, but this is not that surprising for a large lecture format. The students also did not find some concepts as interesting as we had hoped.

Printer Friendly Version of Complete Report Populations and Ecological Footprint This is a printer friendly copy of the report, with the tables and figures included. Populations Lesson  The Lesson The links below take you to a description of the lesson and a powerpoint lecture used in the lesson. Lesson A text description of the lesson, along with links and handouts. Lecture The powerpoint slides used in lecture. Lesson Links Links given to students to find data on their assigned variables. The Study The document below describes the results of the Lesson Study project. Study results A text document describing the results from the lesson study project.