Biofuels in Kentucky
Population Video
Objective:
To give students a visual representation
of how the world population is growing exponentially.
Materials needed:
- "World Population" video (available in VHS or DVD from www.populationeducation.org)
- VHS or DVD player and television
Introduce video:
"We're going to watch a short video. Pay attention to
the lights. Each light represents 1 million people.
Notice where the lights are. Where should they start?
Where were the first people? [Africa] When was the
plague? [1300's] Watch Europe during that time period.
When would you expect to see lights in North America?"
Show video:
Turn it off at the end of the light show.
Discussion:
Ask students what they thought of the video. What is the
message? [The message is that population grows
exponentially not linearly. The rate of increase in
population is very apparent when using lights.]