by Katherine Isbell
My teaching partner and I offer a web-based course called Information Technology and Environmental Issues. This class recently completed a six-week unit on the effects of the world's growing population. This is a very complex topic encompassing many issues such as reproductive health, women's status, pollution and consumerism. We introduced the topic by using the Public Broadcasting Service site, Six Billion and Beyond.1 As we have come to expect from a PBS site, it is extremely well organized and informative. We especially like how the site lends itself very nicely to cooperative group activities since it presents similar information on population issues in six countries around the world: China, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico and the U.S. The site also offers visitors a graphic demonstration of the rate of population growth: active counters show the current total world population and “babies born since you entered this site.” (For the activity handouts we developed for use at this site, see June 7-28 on our course calendar at www.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp/classes/spring01/sci151/home.html.)
The final assignment of the population unit allowed for more in-depth study as the students searched the Web for sites that provided reliable information on the issues they were interested in. Here is a partial listing of the sites they found and that others studying population issues might be interested in
Population Action International (PAI)2 is a non-profit organization aimed at creating programs and policies that slow population growth. It focuses on reproductive health issues and improving educational and economic conditions for women. Since it is a political activist organization, younger students may have difficulty with the level of language used; however, teachers will find its publications and research section useful. While PAI's advocacy views may not be compatible with those of students and teachers in conservative or parochial educational settings, this is a good site for learning more about the politics of population issues.
The Population Reference Bureau3 strives to be a provider of information on U.S. and international population trends and as such produces many publications that might be of use to educators. Although many of the publications must be purchased, there are still plenty of free facts and statistics that can be found throughout this searchable site. There is also a special educators' forum in which teachers can find lesson plans and resource guides on population issues. Overall, this is a very useful site for students and teachers alike.
OneWorld.ne is not a site dedicated to population issues per se. Sponsored by the OneWorld International Foundation, it claims to be a global Internet community of almost 1,000 partners and is dedicated to presenting differing perspectives on global issues -- especially sustainable development and human rights -- that are not necessarily covered in mainstream media. News items and reports from a wide range of sources are published in several different languages. The main page also links to what are referred to as channels, or portal sites. Of special interest to students and teachers are the One World Kids Channel and the LearningChannel.org. I was very impressed with the sophisticated search function at the OneWorld site. A quick keyword search on population turned up over one million hits, but I was able to refine my search in a number of ways. For example, I could specify how current I wanted the information to be and in what language. I could also search the keyword within defined topic areas such as AIDS, climate change, or tourism, just to name a few. All in all, I found this a very intriguing site that I want to bookmark and return to.
While certain topics such as family planning and reproductive rights might be controversial to study in the classroom, the impact of a growing world population is hard to ignore. As educators, we need to introduce our students to the fundamental aspects of this complex and pressing issue. Let me know if you find any of these sites helpful and feel free to send me the URLs of sites you like. Remember, sometimes websites move or disappear. All URLs mentioned were active at press time.
Katharine Isbell is Assistant Professor of
English at Miyazaki International College in Miyazaki, Japan.