Topic: Population distribution worldwide

Target group

Second‑grade student of high school and technical school, basic programme

Core curriculum

VIII. Changes in demographic and social structures and settlement processes: distribution and population, demographic changes, migrations, national, ethnic and religious diversity, cultural circles, settlement network, urbanization processes, rural development.

Student:

1) indicates the areas of concentration of population and low population density and determines factors and regularities in the distribution of the world's population.

General aim of education

The student will explain the causes of the uneven distribution of the world's population.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• exchange factors conducive to settlement;

• exchange settlement barriers;

• indicate on the map sparsely populated areas and completely uninhabited areas;

• discuss the regularities governing the distribution of the population;

• explain the terms anekumena, ekumena, subekumena.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher begins classes by giving the subject and the goals of the lesson.

• Displays on the interactive whiteboard a map of the manual: World - population density. The entire class analyzes the map. Students indicate the most populated areas.

Realization

• Students use geographical atlases and give the names of the countries / cities or geographical areas most populated.

• They indicate the features of population distribution in the world.

• They search for natural and non‑natural factors determining the distribution of the world's population in the handbook and on the Internet.

• Work in groups. The teacher divides the students into 4 groups. Each group develops a different thematic area:
  - Group A: Natural factors determining the distribution of the world's population;
  - Group B: Non‑environmental factors determining the distribution of the world's population;
  - Group C: Settlement barriers. Examples on the world map.
  - Group D: Areas with the largest and the lowest concentration of the world's population
  During the work, students use various sources of information: subject books, e‑textbook, internet..

• The teams discuss the material developed on the class forum. During the presentation they use the physical map of the world, GoogleEarth, interactive whiteboard.

• Students explain the concepts: ekumena, anekumena and subekumena.

• The teacher explains how to calculate the population density index.

• Analysis of population density in selected countries and cities around the world. Students use the in‑text tables: Territories with very low and very high population density and Cities with the highest population density.

• Students perform interactive exercises.

Summary

• The teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer? If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

• The teacher asks the students questions:

  • What did you find important and interesting in class?

  • What was easy and what was difficult?

  • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

  Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

• Make at home a note from the lesson using the sketchnoting method.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Population distribution worldwide

When we look at the map showing population density, we will see that human population is not distributed evenly on Earth. Those lands, were people reside permanently, are called ecumene. Most people live in the northern hemisphere. One of the reasons for this situation is that this is where most of land areas are located. Apart from Antarctica, we can see that there are areas with less and more population in each continent. Sometimes the contrast is enormous.

On the one hand, we can see uninhabited lands (anecumene) or lands where population density is close to nil. Where population density (person/kmIndeks górny 2²) is in single digits, people live in small, highly dispersed settlements. Those include: northern ends of Eurasia and North America, central Asia, major part of Australia, large portions of north Africa and South America. Antarctica is a special case here - this is a continent with no permanent settlement at all.

On the other hand, in some areas population density is greater than 1,000 people per 1 kmIndeks górny 2². Moreover, this scale has no upper limit, even though the last range starts with over 50,000 people per 1 kmIndeks górny 2². Consequently, we are unable to tell (based on the data on the map) what the top limit is. The areas with most dense population are: east and south Asia, Europe, east coast of North and South America, Central America, areas around the Gulf of Guinea and the belt from Ethiopian Highlands to the African Great Lakes. Even if we look at smaller areas, such as countries, the contrasts they are also very big.

If we compare the placement of oldest civilisation sites against the population density map, we can see that the areas, which were densely inhabited in antiquity, continue this trend today. Consequently, we can notice that conditions, which are most attractive for settlement, still are: climate with long vegetation period and high precipitation, even if it is seasonal or rivers with abundance of water. Fertile soil and its easy cultivation on even flatlands are an important factor too. Big rivers with slow current make perfect traffic ways. Nowadays, densely inhabited areas form also on industrial lands, in particular those rich in mineral resources, or service zones e.g. along transportation routes.

As the population grew, new lands were settled, selecting the best available areas. Hence the growth of the ecumene, which covers major portions of the continents. When we compare the population distribution map and the natural map, we can determine the conditions avoided by people or what can be a settlement barrier.

There is also a specific form of adjustment to unfavourable natural conditions, called nomadism - people are constantly on the move, without forming any permanent human settlements or residing there seasonally. Such areas are called subecumene.

• Ecumene is an area where people reside permanently, anecumene means uninhabited areas, and subecumeme - areas where people reside only temporarily.

• Population density is affected by such natural factors as: climate conditions (temperature, precipitation), orographic conditions, soil, vicinity of big rivers and access to the sea, natural resources.

• Conditions avoided by people form a settlement barrier. Those include water, temperature, light, height and gravity barriers.

• Non‑natural factors, which have impact on differences in population distribution worldwide, are historical, economic and political processes and occurrences.