Lesson 8

This lesson is optional. This lesson involves a sequence of four activities that prepare and introduce students to the concept of population density. The lesson can be adjusted depending on available time and teacher-identified goals from 1 to 2 class days.

Contexts involving population density are useful for helping students understand how derived units arise from a proportional relationship (MP2). Population density arises from two familiar quantities, number of people and area. The way the lesson develops helps students make sense of the somewhat abstract idea of density in very concrete terms: They start by comparing the number of dots distributed in squares and move on to houses in different neighborhoods. Finally they compare the number of people living in different cities. Unlike speed or unit pricing, density is not likely to be familiar to students, so it provides an opportunity to make sense of an unfamiliar situation by thinking about familiar quantities in a new way.

This lesson engages students in important aspects of modeling (MP4). In particular, the rates are used to model rather than represent. For example, houses may not be uniformly distributed in any given area, but rates for houses per square mile characterize differences between rural and urban areas. This lesson begins students’ transition from contexts that involve constant rates to contexts that involve average rates of change. Average rate of change is a high school topic, but before high school students begin to investigate situations modeled by proportional relationships, for example, bivariate data with measurement error or quantities that change at rates that are close to constant.

As with all lessons in this unit, all related standards have been addressed in prior units. This lesson provides an optional opportunity to go deeper and make connections between domains.

Throughout the lesson, use opportunities to connect population density to voting. The next lesson explores districting and gerrymandering where the concepts of population density can arise as well.

If desired, prepare to display satellite images that show the housing density in different neighborhoods of your city, New York City and Los Angeles.

Provide access to four-function calculators.