population education, or, 'sharing is caring'

Not a bad lesson plan except my population of kids are pretty aware already of the etiquette of sharing resources - highlighted early on in the class! (Good parenting tho' folks!)  So what did I do? Well, first a rapid Q&A about my classroom globe. Encouraged discussion about planets in general, exactly where we live on the model (New York) and then, where CAN'T we live, or anyone for that matter. Checked ocean, poles (OK I know about Inuits but in the interests of time I didn't mention them), mountains, a lot of the desert areas, impenetrable jungle etc. A big planet can have too many people for the available resources - air, water, food, and to maintain a 'personal space'. How to demo this?

Using a small rug as an 'island', the kids pretended to move onto it and live, one at a time, until things got way too crowded and uncomfortable:

OK so let's see about the resource allocation now! A plate of cookies (2 per child but they weren't told this) were the total food grown on our 'island' for the year. When passed around, I wanted the first few children to take a handful, but to their credit they glanced around the table and made a mental tally of what they OUGHT to take to be fair. Impressive, but I had to drop large hints to get them to take more! Of course, the plate was empty for the last kid or so and they understood the value of equal sharing and that even the kids who got cookies didn't all get the same either. Re-passing the cookies I asked, "How many should you take to be sure it's fair" and some kids said 'one' which I also thought was pretty good reasoning. Now we all had the same BUT, as I pointed out, fewer kids in the class would mean more for everyone. 2 cookies each was fair but maybe not enough to satisfy.

I did the same with a pitcher of water. They were getting the message!
Now for some urban planning:

The kids pretended to 'peel' the surface off the globe and we divided the 'skin' - a paper circle - into a pie showing the places people could live and those where they couldn't. We colored in some 'slices': blue = sea; brown = unliveable land; dots = liveable land and green = farmland. Pretty clear there's not much farmland. Each child got a lego block 'house' to put on the dotted slice and  soon things were getting crowded, houses were spilling over into the farmland and thus reducing the food supply as the population increased.
"What can we do to keep our living area, but free up some space around the houses for gardens, parks, playgrounds etc?" I asked the kids. I got a lot of suggestions but maybe one child in half of the classes, 3's and 4's included here (that's about 1 in 15) actually told me to "build up". "make a tower" "put one on top", and my favorite, "make a castle". Solving a puzzle like that really involves some abstract thought and I was really impressed to find, at such a young age, that some kids could do this. Wow!!!

Here they are building an apartment!

This works just as well with a small circle representing 'our town'. They can really imagine losing their garden and playground better that way.

Voila!

Whether or not the idea of a global population explosion was processed here, the classroom  and 'my town' scale seemed to give them pause, even though they won't get to experience privations of space and food in their everyday lives. I will try to get some pictures and videos of overcrowding in other places  and countries without making a bleak picture for them. That's for next time as we segue into rocks and minerals!

Revising the lesson plan

I had to Curb My Lesson Plan (but not my Enthusiasm!) to better fit time and energy constraints - shorter and simpler plus time for the kids to move around. A new classroom is wonderful but the kids needed some adjustment to the space.
So.. I started with a general Question:
Q: "Why are we here?"
A: "To do Science"
Q: "What is Science?
A: "Um..."
Well of course almost any answer will be right because science is all about how the world works. So a lot of the possible responses could be pretty silly and still be Science, and it's good to get the class laughing.
Next step was getting the kids to get up and engage in a 'scavenger hunt' - I would ask them to find stuff in the room - either images or the real thing or, introducing a new concept - identifying a MODEL of something, the earth for example (globe).

Above,  they are finding a polar bear picture.

Once they were more comfortable with the new space it was time to do some magic:

An innocent-looking cup of water (Q: 'why do you think this is water? A: Clear; See-through; liquid etc) reveals 'invisible' balls only after using our touch senses. EEkkkk! As each child checked out the cup, I pretended they were kidding me about feeling balls in the water because they were invisible to the eyes. Finally, the secret was out (literally) as each child in turn fished out a jelly marble that had been lurking in the water.

I encouraged them to find words to describe how the balls felt: 'soft', smooth', 'slimy', 'wet', 'squishy', were among the responses.
They bounce and roll just like rubber balls but the children discovered that the structure collapsed if you squeezed them - this caused some initial alarm ('I broke it!'), quickly dispelled by my encouraging them all to 'splat' their balls and find out how they were made.

squishing the marbles

splat!

 

The reason they are invisible in water is that they are mostly water - further explanations were beyond their comprehension but they understood that adding water to water doesn't leave a visible trace. WE know of course that the polymer comprising the jelly marble has a structure but the sheer amount of water absorbed dominates.
Mentioning  that a similar substance is in the lining of a diaper,  gets the right amount of 'EEEUUW!' and ensures this nugget gets communicated to their parents and friends after the class is over.

Try this at home:
Adding sugar crystals to a cup of water and stirring them so they 'disappear' acts as an extra comparative activity that is fun and something they can try at home with all kinds of things like salt, flour etc. The idea of Dissolving is introduced as is Solvents as they try these solids in different solutions - syrup, oil, vinegar etc.

All in all a successful first class for 3 and 4 year-olds - we'll get to the Population Connection fun and games next time - it involves sharing and eating which are, after all, crucial to pre-K skills!