2012
Human Movement in a Population Explosion
Main topic:
Humans, as is true for all mammals, move in order to procure adequate elements for base survival: food, water, space, shelter, and protection. Our country was founded by those in search of one or all of these needs. Most students can trace the origin of their families back to find at least one major sea voyage resulting in a change of citizenship, devotion, or loyalty. This process of movement continues as the human instinct of survival prevails in the midst of a population explosion. Should all who desire a change of location be granted the right to move into America? The process of immigrating to America has undergone drastic changes throughout history and remains a contentious debate among politicians and citizens alike. Now that there is a world population over 7 billion, how will immigration/emigration evolve? When pursuing the concept of human movement, we must ask:
- Why do people move?
- What are the current reasons people emigrate from their birth countries?
- Was a better life obtained once movement took place?
- How were/are immigrants viewed by Americans?
- Why were laws concerning immigration established in America?
- Why has it become necessary to establish intricate laws, regulations, and definitions of citizenship in America?
- How have these laws changed since the forming of our nation?
- Should America continue to allow immigration?
- Should all humans feel empathy for each other and offer a more even distribution of space in the world?
- What do 7 billion people look like?
This unit will allow students to explore these questions by considering the pattern and trend of population growth throughout the world, and how that has affected the American population. Various reasons for movement will be explored through written and oral accounts of an immigrant’s life, as well as the established legal process needed to obtain citizenship in America.
Scholarly Knowledge:
Teachers will need to read numerous first-person accounts of the travel to America (see resources page for great websites and books). Through this experience, teachers will undoubtedly begin to empathize with these individuals and begin to bring them to life for the students. Through this means toward a baseline of information, teachers can then delve into the analysis of population growth and the inevitable regulations imparted upon immigrants. Teachers should explore the development of Ellis Island and its impact on incoming immigrants, as well as the need to build Angel Island. This encourages students to view America as a somewhat isolated location where regulations were imperative to maintain the promise of “the right to life and pursuit of happiness” by filtering those who would bring disease, terror, or rebellion. This fear of disease and mistrust of difference caused panic in many and despair in so many more that were innocently discharged due to a miscommunication or lack of hygiene. Hearing the oral histories of people who traveled into Ellis Island and the fear of rejection that can still be heard in their voice 80 years later is powerful, as is focusing on the eyes of children photographed alone and huddled on boats—bursting with hope—purity abounding as they knew not to fear the unknown.
In addition, teachers should explore the current distribution of the world’s 7 billion people and come to conceptualize some of the daily events in an area bulging with humans. In the annotated bibliography are several links to an endless array of video from various urban megacities dealing with extreme movement of people within a small geographic space.
Standards:
5.1.5 Explain the religious, political and economic reasons for movement of people
from Europe to the Americas.
5.1.17 Create and interpret timelines showing major people, events and developments in
the early history of the United States from 1776-1801.
5.1.19 Using primary and secondary sources to examine an historical account about an
issue of the time, reconstruct the literal meaning of the passages by identifying
who was involved, what happened, where it happened, what events led to these
developments and what consequences or outcomes followed.
5.1.20 Read and interpret primary and secondary source accounts that pertain to a
problem confronting people during the Founding Era of the United States.
5.2.10 Use a variety of information resources to identify and evaluate contemporary
issues that involve civic responsibility, individual rights and the common good.
Objectives:
Students will explore and focus on answering the following questions:
- Why do people move?
- What are the current reasons people emigrate from their birth countries?
- Was a better life obtained once movement took place?
- How were/are immigrants viewed by Americans?
- Why were laws concerning immigration established in America?
- Why has it become necessary to establish intricate laws, regulations, and definitions of citizenship in America?
- How have these laws changed since the forming of our nation?
- Should America continue to allow immigration?
- Should all humans feel empathy for each other and offer a more even distribution of space in the world?
- What do 7 billion people look like?
Students will visually explore the growth of human population and project future population trends.
Students will analyze the ebbs and flows of American immigrants and their countries of origins.
Students will experience the stories of immigrants and the impetus of their departure and journey.
Students will examine the continuously changing legal process of obtaining American citizenship and why these changes occur.
Materials Needed:
Internet access
Projector
At least three boards (chalk, dry-erase, or paper)
Sticky notes
Access to resources presented in Annotated Bibliography
Lesson 1: Why do People Move?
Focus In: Why do people move? Write this question on the board, and have students write a reason on a sticky note to put up under the question. They may submit more than one answer if they choose. After all students have placed a note, read the responses to the class.
Show the students the video, “7 Billion, National Geographic Magazine.”
After the video, ask the students to add to the board any new ideas generated by the video. Take down ideas that now seem incorrect. Discuss additions and subtractions. Ask students for their reasons in making them.
Teach for Ideas: Human Movement
Example #1: Have students break into groups of four to discuss ways they could categorize the responses on the board. Have each group write their category ideas on a separate sticky note and place on a separate board. Organize the category ideas, and rewrite them to create a grid board of category ideas for why people move. Have the students return to their initial sticky note responses to the question “why do people move?” and have them transfer these notes and place them in the appropriate category.
When all are finished, read off the items in each category. Ask the whole group if anyone feels a reason was placed in the incorrect category, and fix, as needed, upon discussion.
Then, have the students return to small groups of four and discuss the category holding the most notes. Each group should write a paragraph describing why they feel this category causes the greatest need to move for humans.
Example #2: Have the students estimate how much of the classroom they would take up if they all stood shoulder to shoulder. After several responses, have the students all stand shoulder to shoulder in the center of the room. Mark the exterior of the group with rope, tape, meter sticks (whatever is handy), and have the students carefully move out of the space. Have a couple volunteers measure and estimate the area taken up by the students. Note any surprise of the way humans can condense in space, yet desire so much.
Example #3: Display the following images and ask the students to consider being one of the people either walking in the top image or living in the bottom image. Have the students reflect in their notebook on the following questions as images are kept up on the screen. Would you require more space? How would you obtain that extra space?
Lesson 2: Teach for Inquiry: Why do people emigrate? Immigration in the 20th Century
Hook: Raise the Essential Question: Why do people emigrate? Generate a list of hypotheses.
Clue #1: Begin this lesson with a short video clip from 1903 of a ship arriving at Ellis Island:
Cue the video to just past the intro that describes what the video contains. Do not tell the kids what they are watching. After the video, ask them to turn to a partner and discuss what they think the video is showing and in what year.
Have students make a list of clues they were using to back up their theory of event, time, and place. Most will notice the Save Ellis Island at the top of the video, but the date may be more difficult to determine. Allow each group to share their guess but not to disclose their rationale.
Tell the students it was a ship pulling into Ellis Island and immigrants who had been on the boat for the past month or so and were stepping foot on American soil for the first time in 1903.
For those who guess correctly (or close) allow them to share the clues they used to formulate their guess.
Clue #2: Why were they leaving their birth country? Have the students work in pairs to come up with a quick story for one of the passengers. Compare students’ stories to the oral history clip of Mary Masare Thome found at the Save Ellis Island link:
Mary Masare Thome
Born: February 26, 1902 in Czechoslovakia (Austria-Hungary)
Arrived: 1909 at age 7
Interviewer: Nancy Dallett
Have the students imagine her face as she speaks . . . and ask what her story does to change her appearance in your mind? Give the students time to draw a quick sketch of Mary. They may choose to draw her at age 7 or at the age of the recording.
Clue #3: Next, play the oral history of Irving Chait found at the same URL above. Have the students do the same as with Mary, and listen for the vision of his face. They should be reminded to listen to the entirety before drawing Irving.
Irving (Israel) ChaitBorn: 1902 in RussiaArrived: 1913 on “the Kursk”Interviewer: Debbie Dane
Conclusions: Revisit original hypotheses. Ask students how, if at all, the evidence changed their minds. Revise hypotheses.
Lesson 3: Write to Learn: “So I Come to America”: Photo story by Robert Gordon:
Each photo is accompanied with each immigrant’s story transcribed exactly as it was told. Beautiful shots . . . beautiful words.
Hook: Project the slide show of Gordon’s photo gallery for the students to view on a large scale. (The slide show has just the images without the accompanying script.) Have the students silently view the images. Ask them to think of what were the conditions of each immigrant’s move to the United States.
R.A.F.T.: After viewing the show, display the matrix of photos found at the home page of the gallery. Have this page printed and the images cut out. Have students work with a partner. Give each pair one of the images. They are to come up with a detailed story of the photographed individual’s journey to America. Have the students explain the who, what, when, where, and why with as much detail as they can. Remind them of the oral histories they heard in the previous lesson and what those individuals chose to elaborate upon with details.
Students should be given ample time to write. They should bring the photo to life with their descriptions. Let the face tell the story.
Assessment: By clicking on each image, a text box opens with a transcribed interview of the individual in the photo. Have each pair present their story to the class, and then click on the image to reveal the actual story.
After all have shared, discuss the stories they read and how these stories differed from the story they had created.
Conclude with the students reflecting in their notebook. Have them ponder the variance of the comparison of their created story versus the real story. How accurate were your guesses? How surprised were you when you heard the actual story? Upon what did you base your guesses?
Lesson 4: Teach for Inquiry: Why do people emigrate? Immigration in the 21st century.
Hook: Raise EQ: Why do people emigrate today from their birth countries? Have the students write this question in their notebooks, providing 2–3 minutes to write a response. Have them discuss their answers within their smaller groups (mostly as a review from the previous lesson). Generate a list of hypotheses.
Clue #1: Kids Discover: Immigration: Pages 12 and 13: Photocopy the section on Immigrants in their own words. There are eight immigrant children who were asked a series of questions regarding their move to the United States. (Be creative with the copying, as the questions will need to be inserted and included with the answers for each.) Make 3–4 copies of each (depending on class size), and pass them out to all the students. Have them find others who have the same story (random groups are now formed—try to keep it to 3–4 members)
If your students work better in smaller groups, more testimonials of recent immigrant children can be found at the following websites:
stories from three child immigrants who moved within the last decade
stories of present day immigrants.
After the students have found their group, have them take turns reading the bios of the child immigrants.
After about five minutes of reading, encourage the kids to discuss any answers that surprised them. Have them write any surprising fact on a piece of paper on the wall that can be left up for the entire unit and periodically added to as surprising information arises for the students.
Clue #2: Have the groups choose one recorder (or preferably all take turns as long as fluidity of reading aloud is maintained) and in order, have each read the answer to the first question for each of the immigrant children. Proceed to question 2, and fluidly work through all the information. The rest of the students should be recording any similarities they notice within the answers from the eight children in the notebooks.
After all answers are read, have the recorders report what they noticed as far as recurring themes between the stories. Write their responses on the board as they are shared. After all have reported, ask them to go back to their original question written at the beginning of the lesson, why do people emigrate from their birth countries? Revise their hypotheses. Write down any additions, surprises, or changes of heart from their original position. Have students share their reflections within their groups.
Lesson 5: Teach for Inquiry: Historical events and their influence on human population
Hook: Before the kids arrive, have several sheets of paper or categories on several boards with various dates written on them: 2011, 1974, 1927, 1790, each with two columns underneath labeled world population and United States population.
Ask the students to walk around and write a guess in each column for each date.
After all have guessed, reveal the answers. Write them under the date on each paper.
World: 1 billion around 1790, 2 billion around 1927, 4 billion in 1974, and 7 billion in 2011.
USA: 4 million around 1790, 123 million around 1927, 215 million in 1974, and 309 million in 2011.
Clue #1: Have the kids look at the percentage of growth in the world versus the percent of growth in the United States. Once students find these totals, ask them to discuss in small groups the figures they obtained. Pose each of the following questions to the class, and have the groups discuss their answers and then share to the whole group: What caused the U.S. population to expand by 3075% when the world population only doubled between 1790 and 1927? Why did the world population nearly double in the last 37 years, while the U.S. population has only gone up by less than half? What causes this fluctuation?
Clue #2: Present the Kids Discover: Immigration magazine—center graphic.
Photocopy and distribute the graphic, or project it if a document camera is accessible. Have the students read through the elements of this graph and discuss potential reasons for the peaks and valleys within the data of the number of immigrants and their country of origin between 1820 and 1996. Have the students postulate theories on these fluctuations based off any prior knowledge they have of pertinent historical events. They should generate a list of these theories accompanied by their rationale for this data point.