Purpose: Population data is generally reported using figures that are in the thousands to millions. The exceptions are the population of China and the total world population. But - how much is a million? How much space does a million require?

Geographic Standards: The geographically informed person knows and understands:

Standard 9: The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on the Earth's surface.

1. Ask geographic questions
2. Acquire geographic information
3. Organize geographic information
4. Analyze geographic information
5. Answer geographic questions

Materials:

Materials found in the immediate/school/neighborhood environment to use for counting.

1. participate in class discussions
2. calculate using mathematical concepts
3. identify places on a school, neighborhood, island map
4. analyze data
5. evaluate their learning with group/class discussions

The Magic of a Million. David Schwartz and David Whitin
Scholastic Professional Books ISBN 0-590-70133-9
1-800-Scholas(tic) PO Box 7502, Jefferson City, MO 65102

Procedure:

Students may do this as an individual or as a group (no more than 6 to a group). List your group members.

1. Students will discuss as a group their ideas of what a million is. What does it look like? The group then will find a million of some item (it may be anything-people, leaves on a tree, blades of grass, buildings, ants, words, tiles, etc). The items must be in one location.

2. Students must provide a description of the item(s), a map of the location of the items, and a description of the locational setting, including how much space was required for the million items.

3. The group must document how they determined that there was a million of the item. How you determine the million is up to you, but by some type of sampling technique might be in order.

4. The student groups will give any oral presentation to share their findings. You may bring a sample item, but please do not bring all million of them!

1. Students participation in group work, discussion, and presentation to whole class.
2. Students will record in their journals/assignment what they discovered in their findings.

Name of Group Members:_________________________________________________________

Item:

Location:

Description of Locational Setting:

Method: