Category: Global Systems Science
Online curriculum books for high school science pertinent to key societal issues
PG5. The Environmental Impact of Populations
Chapter 5 { Population Growth Contents } More humans means more demands of nature. The demand for wood, wood products, and additional space for agriculture has resulted in worldwide loss of forests. What people all over the world are beginning to recognize is that the world’s resources are finite. There is just so much land, […]
PG4. The History of Human Population Growth
Chapter 4 { Population Growth Contents } All living things have evolved with the capacity to reproduce at very high rates. What would happen if this were not so? What if a maple tree produced only one seed in a year? What are the chances that a single seed would find a hospitable patch of […]
PG3.7. Earlobes: A Study of Human Gene Frequencies
{ Population Growth Contents } { All GSS Books } All of us have genes in pairs. We received one gene of each pair from each of our parents. For example, whether or not you have lots of room for earrings is determined by the pair of genes you received from your parents. In the […]
PG3. Population Reproduction, Growth, and Change Over Time
Chapter 3 { Population Growth Contents } Unfortunately, neither the Spanish nor the English sailors were terribly interested in taking a census of the number of goats or dogs on the island during any of their visits, and they did not do a mark-recapture that we know of. We can only guess at the number […]
PG2.7. Grasshopper Mark and Recapture
{ Population Growth Contents } { All GSS Books } This investigation involves a method of estimating the population size of grasshoppers and other animals. This activity is conducted outside in the fall, in an open field that will remain undisturbed for 1-2 weeks. We capture grasshoppers and mark them in a way that will […]
PG2. Patterns in Populations
Chapter 2 { Population Growth Contents } Understanding the patterns of population change has become possible by creating mathematical models, or equations, that have the same characteristics as actual populations. An equation that successfully models population growth must display some of the same patterns that we saw on Goat Island. Making a graph that is […]
PG1. What is a Population?
Chapter 1 { Population Growth Contents } The word “population” can refer not only to people, but to groups of beetles, or cacti, or even fireflies! A population is a group of individuals of one species living in an area and occupying a particular ecological niche. This book is about the impacts of populations on […]
Bibliography for Population Growth
{ Population Growth Contents } { All GSS Books } Brown, Lester R., Building a Sustainable Society, W.W. Norton, 1981 Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Trends ’91, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1992 Chen, Victor, Crisis of a Crowded World, Audubon, July-Aug., 1994 Coale, Ansley J., The History of the Human Population, Scientific American, Sept., 1974 […]
Population Growth
POPULATION GROWTH addresses a fundamental problem: even if we can change our habits to use only clean and efficient sources of energy such as solar, wind, and water power, global environmental problems will continue to worsen if the world’s population continues to grow at the present rate. See Overview. Contents Chapters Investigations Stay Current 1. […]
EU10C. 2009-2014 Our Energy Future
Staying current for Chapter 10 Articles from 2009–2014 Stay current index page for chapter 10 { Energy Use Contents } 2014-12-21. Energy-Storage Plans Gain Ground in California. By Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times. Excerpt: In an unusual competition in California, proposals for energy storage systems beat out hundreds of bids to construct new power plants as […]