Modeling Population Growth

Here learners get to flex some serious algebraic muscles through an investigation of logistic growth. The properties of the constant terms in the logistic growth formula are unraveled in a short but content-dense activity. Moving...

Will human population growth always be exponential, or will we find a limiting factor we can't avoid? Young scientists learn about both exponential and logistic growth models in various animal populations. They use case studies to...

Population density, it is not all that it is plotted to be. Pupils analyze a scatter plot of population versus area for some of the states in the US. The class members respond to eight questions about the graph, specific points and...

How do you make a penny grow to $5,000 in just 15 days? Use the examples in this lesson to explore the concept of exponential growth and its comparison to linear models. Pupils come to understand that exponential growth eventually...

Via the concrete setting of estimating the population of the US, your algebra learners are introduced to a logistic growth model. Comparing and contrasting logistic, exponential, linear and quadratic models, to see which fits the data...

It's scary how fast bacteria can grow — exponentially. Class members solve exponential equations, including those modeling bacteria and population growth. Lesson emphasizes numerical approaches rather than graphical or algebraic.

How fast is a city's population growing? Viewers of a short video learn to apply the slope formula in a population growth context. They see how to describe the population increase in people per year—a great example of math in the real...

Students examine both historical and recent estimates of world population. They identify regions of the world that have had significant population growth in the last decade and speculate on reasons for this.

Examine an exponential growth model. Using a fractal, learners calculate the perimeters of each stage. When comparing the consecutive perimeters, a pattern emerges. They use the pattern to build an equation and make conclusions.

Students determine the average annual rate of change (growth rate) of U.S. national population for each decade of historical census data.