Education Technology


The World Population: Linear and Expontential Models

Activity Overview

The population of the world has grown rapidly over the last century. In this activity, several models for the growth of the worlds population will be developed. The validity of each in predicting past, current, and future populations will then be explored.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.

  • Print pages from the attached PDF file for your class as needed.
  • During the Activity

    Students will:

  • Collect world population data from the internet and find linear and exponential models for the data and investigate the appropriateness of each model.
  • After the Activity

    Review student results:

  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary