Unit Rationale
Adolescents: Students will study the shifts in demographics over time to better understand how increasing diversity will influence their lives. By the end of the unit, students will realize demographics vary widely between different sample populations and have a better understanding of how this diversity is integrated into their lives.
Math: Students will learn how to collect and interpret statistical data using a variety of mathematical tools and then how to employ that data to reach a conclusion backed by mathematical evidence.
Social Science: Students will analyze what has happened historically in various populations as the demographics shift. By looking to previous examples and gathering evidence, students will gain an understanding of how changes in demographics effect perspectives and create bias, an integral component of studying history.
Other: Students will participate in service learning and activities dedicated to technology, the arts and cooperative learning to better understand the role demographics play in their community and beyond.
Enduring Understandings:
Students will understand:
Essential Questions:
How are the shifts in demographics a good thing for you as an individual, for your school, for your community, for your state and for your nation?
How are the shifts in demographics a bad thing for you as an individual, for your school, for your community, for your state and for your nation?
What does the variance in demographics between smaller and larger populations tell you about people?
Why are statistical interpretation and compilation of evidence useful tools for historians?
Why might mathematicians benefit from understanding the historical context behind statistics?
Math: Students will learn how to collect and interpret statistical data using a variety of mathematical tools and then how to employ that data to reach a conclusion backed by mathematical evidence.
Social Science: Students will analyze what has happened historically in various populations as the demographics shift. By looking to previous examples and gathering evidence, students will gain an understanding of how changes in demographics effect perspectives and create bias, an integral component of studying history.
Other: Students will participate in service learning and activities dedicated to technology, the arts and cooperative learning to better understand the role demographics play in their community and beyond.
Enduring Understandings:
Students will understand:
- How to build an argument supported by evidence gathered through research
- Mathematics can be used to gather and analyze evidence with the aim of investigating issues outside the world of mathematics
- Social science involves many many different perspectives on the same events. These perspectives alter the retelling of history and how people interact with one another. To get an idea of the bias that develops out of these perspectives, historians can look to mathematical evidence
Essential Questions:
How are the shifts in demographics a good thing for you as an individual, for your school, for your community, for your state and for your nation?
How are the shifts in demographics a bad thing for you as an individual, for your school, for your community, for your state and for your nation?
What does the variance in demographics between smaller and larger populations tell you about people?
Why are statistical interpretation and compilation of evidence useful tools for historians?
Why might mathematicians benefit from understanding the historical context behind statistics?