Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking

connection)
Teacher: Alexandria Kinder
Content & Title:
Grade Level:
Social Studies:
6th grade
Population and the
impacts it has on
our society
Standards:
Concept 4: Human Systems
PO 2. Describe the environmental, economic, cultural, and political effects of
human migrations and cultural diffusion on places and regions.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
SWBAT determine factors in society that are impacted by population.
Students will focus on the population of Phoenix to create 3 impacts and how
they are impacted to present to the class.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
Students will create/find 3 impacts of population in the Phoenix area.
Students will write a short paragraph based on values thinking of what they
learned about the impacts of population on their community.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from
simple to more complex):

SWBAT determine things that are affected by population in their everyday

lives
SWBAT present to the class the factors that they discovered
SWBAT focus on one factor, and determine how human population directly
affects this problem

Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about

what students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)

The teacher will review with the class what population is, and students will review
with their class the findings of the populations in the cities that they studied the day
before. To introduce the class to todays lesson, the teacher will give each group a
sheet of poster paper.In your groups, split the paper into two halves. On the first
half, brainstorm ways that you see the population in our city impacting the way
things operate. For example, I sit in traffic on the highway on my way to school
because there are so many people trying to get to work. What are ways and places
that you see population in your everyday lives?
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to
completing this lesson)
Students will need to know what a population is, and the differences of populations
in different areas of the world. Students will need to recognize the impacts that
population has on their everyday lives in school and at home.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)
Every community and country has the same impacts of population. However, the
impacts are different depending on how the community works and the resources
that are available to them.

Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)

Students will need to reflect on the daily occurences they have with people in public.
They will also need to work well in a group with other people and know how to
collaborate with others.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your

lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of
thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included
meaningfully in the lesson plan.)

Students will be using values thinking at the end of the lesson to create an exit
ticket on what they have learned throughout the lesson. They will use this form of
thinking to conclude their findings of how population can impact people in their
community, as well as other commuites around the world.
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)

Students need to be in groups that they can collaborate in. If there are any students
that do not work well together, the teacher will assign them to different groups.
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. What are impacts that population has in our community?
2. What can be done to help reduce these impacts?
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
1. Population
2. Affects
3. Population Growth

Materials: (list item and possible

quantity)

1. Poster paper
2. Access to laptop or research material
3. Markers
Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that
students will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
Do any of you remember what the
Share with the class their findings
definition of a population is from
of the population of their country
what we talked about on Monday?
from the day before.
Refresh the students by talking
about the different country
populations that were found the
day before.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
To refresh students on what was talked about the day before, look back on the chart
that is posted on the whiteboard from the day before.
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use
materials to discover information that will help them answer the question
posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for
younger students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the subobjectives of the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)
Students Will: (list all steps)
Introduce the students to the
In their groups, students will
activitiy by handing out large
brainstorm places that they see
sheets of poster paper to each
population having an impact on
group.
normal things.
In your groups, split the paper into
Students will write their ideas on

two halves. On the first half,

the top portion of their poster
brainstorm ways that you see the
paper.
population in our city impacting the
way things operate. For example, I
sit in a lot of traffic on the highway
on my way to school because there
are so many people trying to get to
work. What are ways and places
that you see population in your
everyday lives?
Teacher will roam aroud the room
as students come up with ideas in
their groups.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
If students are having a difficult time coming up with ideas, a teacher or assistant
will give the group broad ideas and have students create more specific ideas based
off of the broad ones.
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects
student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students
articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson subobjectives by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Have students share their findings
In their groups, students will come
on impacts population has in our
to the front of the classroom to
society.
present their findings that are
written on their poster paper.
If not covered by students, mention
Each student will be required to
how climate change is affected by
human population.
speak about one of the findings
that they are presenting.
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
The teacher should have groups of students split up the speaking portions before
the group comes up to present in front of the class. This way, students will be
prepared when it is their turn.
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore
and clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular
aspect of this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order
thinking in this stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If?
question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
What can we do to help reduce
Prepare for the next class by
these impacts as our population
pulling together ideas.
keeps rising?
Watch and understand the video
The teacher willl show the video of
on Arizona climate change and the
climate change in Arizona.
impacts on the Phoenix area.
http://www.populationeducatio
n.org/content/world-populationvideo

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

No differentiation strategies need to be implemented in this portion of the lesson.
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson
objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big
concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
As an exit ticket for this lesson,
Write a few short sentences as an
students will use values thinking
exit ticket to display their
to write a few short sentences on
understanding of how population
what these impacts mean to
can impact different groups of
them, and how they affect
people in their community.
different types of people in our
community.
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
The exit ticket will serve as the closing to this lesson. Students will create a short
paragraph using values thinking that displays their understanding of the impacts
that population has on the community around them.