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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.

Population Data

This resource contains seven activities related to population statistics.

Data Assessment is fourteen pages of questions to be used a test of the topics covered in the seven lessons.

Population Change Information Sheet is an extensive document which can be made available or use by students.

Lesson 1 covers what social scientists call the Demographic Transition Model. This analyses the relationship between birth rates, death rates and population growth, and how all of these tend to vary as a country becomes more developed. Students need to interpret and draw bar charts showing the relative size of different age groups within populations. They also need to draw line graphs.

Lesson 2 is concerned with how we can select a fair sample? Sampling methods covered are random, systematic, cluster sampling, stratified and quota sampling. Data used is recent population data of the 196 countries of the world. Students are encouraged to see that the real challenge of sampling is to devise the smallest sample size that will yield reliable results.

Lesson 3 deals with diagrams representing data. It examines the difference between birth and death rate in different countries. Students need to use a sampling process then draw various types of bar chart and radar diagram. They are asked to compare the diagrams drawn from their sample of data with the full data set illustrated in the presentation. Teacher notes within the presentation give support and advice about the lesson.

Lesson 4 explains how the standard deviation is calculated and what it can be used for. The presentation gives a clear explanation of the process by showing calculations of the standard deviation of the birth rates and death rates for European countries. Students then do a similar process on samples of countries from other continents using their own samples.

Lesson 5 deals with correlation. A possible correlation between birth rate and death rate is sought but not found. Countries from the different continents are shown in different colours in the various diagrams. The correlation between infant mortality rate and birth rate in a sample of African countries is shown and examples of interpolation given. Students need to use the World Population Data Sheet or other sources of population data.

Lesson 6 deals with cumulative frequency and comparison of cumulative frequency curves. The data is from the World Population Data Sheet and box plots are shown as a way of comparing sets of data. Range and inter-quartile range are explained and used to show differences between European and African birth and death rates.

Lesson 7 focuses on the construction and use of histograms. Frequency density is explained and students are shown why frequency density is used rather than frequency. The presentation uses histograms to compare sets of data as are box plots and cumulative frequency curves.

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