Population of Counties in My State � A Multimedia Presentation

Engage

1. Brainstorm with your table group why the United States would care about the population enough to take a count. How does the size of your county compare to other counties in your area? Does that difference negatively or positively impact your county? In what ways? How does a county’s population affect new businesses moving to a location? What is the relationship between the size of a county and the number of people who live there? Share your ideas during a class discussion.

2. How do graphs help us interpret data? Pair up with another student to answer these questions with Two Minute Talks. The instructions for the Two Minute Talks are included.

3. If you have access to United Streaming, these videos may be used to increase your understanding of population.
a. Los Angeles County Office of Education. 2001.
unitedstreaming. 30 March 2008
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
b. Discovery Channel School. 2006.
unitedstreaming. 31 March 2008


“Discovery Education streaming is a digital video-on-demand and online teaching service to help improve students' retention and test scores; it is aligned to U.S. state and provincial standards.” If you do not have access to United Streaming, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial at www.unitedstreaming.com

Two Minute Talks
Purpose: To activate prior knowledge and focus student learning on the topic about to be addressed.

Description: During Two Minute Talks, students will share with a partner by brainstorming everything they already know (prior knowledge) about a skill, topic, or concept. In doing so, they are establishing a foundation of knowledge in preparation for learning new information about the skill, topic, or concept.

Procedure:
1. Group students into pairs.
2. Inform students that they will each be talking about topic X for two minutes. They will need to select which student will begin first. An easy way to do this is to say something like: "Find out whose birthday comes first in a calendar year." Then tell students that, "That person gets to go second!"
3. Using a stop watch or other timing device, tell students to begin talking.
4. At two minutes, instruct students to switch. At this point, the other partner begins talking. It is okay for the second person to repeat some of the things the first person said. However, they are encouraged to try and think of new information to share.
5. Have a few groups share some of their responses with the entire class when the activity is done.

Sample Two Minute Topics:
What are the research benefits of using the Internet?
What would happen to schools if all the computers disappeared overnight?
Name as many topics for databases that you can think of.
How would you use a PowerPoint slideshow to convince your parents to increase your allowance?
Name all of the things you can do in a word processing program.

Explore

1. Review the population facts ideas gathered during the brainstorming.
2. As a class do a basic population information search using the Internet (possibly projecting on a classroom screen). You might explore a different state than yours.
3. As a class, do research to come up with a list of the names of all the counties in your state.
4. Divide the students into groups or partners so they can begin their Internet research.
5. As you research and collect your data, record your information into an Excel Spreadsheet.

For assistance with Excel:
http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/techknowpark/FreeFall/Resources.html

6. You will list the five counties you feel would be best locations for a new business. Keep in mind why these counties would be beneficial to your business.

Explain

1. Over the next four days, you and your partner will be gathering information for your project.

Here are some suggestions to help you locate some research.
Start your exploration by creating population size-related questions you have about your community and then categorizing the questions into topics.

Find Printed Materials: Look for books and articles to start answering your questions. The local library is the best source for this task.

2. While you are researching, keep in mind your PowerPoint final project. Look for pictures or photographs that could enhance your presentation.
Tip: When you decide what images (pictures), sounds or text that you want to use in your presentation, be sure to check for a copyright notice. Some web sites want you to use their materials for educational projects while other don’t. A good practice for you should be to look for an email on the Web page you want to use materials from and use it to send a request for permission to use it in your class presentation.

It is also important that you identify materials that you use completely in your production. This is called “making a citation” of someone else’s work. The format that is typically used is as follows:

Last Name, First Name of Author (if known). “Title of work/article/page.” Title of Complete Document (if applicable). Date last modified. URL (date visited).

Elaborate

Finish your research and create your multimedia project. A key step in your work is sharing it with others.

You will use Microsoft PowerPoint to create a slideshow with text and graphics.

The presentation should be at least 6 slides:
1. Title Page
2. Introduction to place and why you chose that place.
3. Place in the past
4. Place in the present
5. Impact of Change
6. Credits/Bibliography

You can refer back to the sample presentation, Teacher Example, for an example of the requirements. You can also utilize the instructions for PowerPoint below:

PowerPoint Presentations, http://nortellearnit.org/technology/PowerPoint_Presentations/

If you finish early, you can add animations, sound effects and transitions to their slides.

Be prepared to present your work to your class. The teacher will assign you a time for your presentation.



Instructions for PowerPoint

• Click on the green Start icon at the bottom left hand corner on the screen.
• Go to All Programs.
• Go to Microsoft Office. A list of programs will pop up to the right. Click on PowerPoint.
• You will have your first slide of your presentation on the screen.
• The first slide has a Title and Subtitle box to type text. Click in the box to type your title which is the name of your inventor. Click in the subtitle box to type your names.
• When you need a new slide, go to Insert in the tool bar and click on New Slide, or click on New Slide in the tool bar on the far right.
• When you need to change the format or layout of the slide, click on Getting Started to the right of the slide. You will have a menu of options. Click on Slide Layout. You will have many choices of layouts. Click on the one you want and it will apply that design to your slide. You will have choices to add content (pictures/clip art) and text. Click on the layout you want.
• You may want to add clip art to a slide. You will need a slide where you and add content. There are 6 icons in the blue box. Click on the picture of a person. The person is the last icon on the top row. A box will pop up that give you many choices of pictures to choose from. When you find one you want, click on it and the picture and then click on ok. It will appear on your slide. Or you can go to insert in the tool bar and click on picture. You can add clip art or a picture from a file.
• When you want to add text, click in that box. You will have a cursor to start typing.
• To change the background color of a slide, click on Getting Started. If you have changed the layout, it will read Slide Layout now. In the menu that comes up, click on Slide Design – Color Schemes. Your options will change. When you select a background color you want, click on the arrow on the right side of the box. If you want to change the color on all your slides, click on Apply to All Slides. If you want to change the color on only the selected slide, click on Apply to Selected Slides.
• When you have all your slides completed, you want to set up transitions between each slide. Click on Getting Started (or Slide Layout or Slide Design). Click on Slide Transition. You will have a list of choices to select from. You will need to do this for each slide.
• When you are ready to view your presentation, click on View in the tool bar. Then click on Slide Show. You will need to click the mouse to move from one slide to the next.

Evaluate

An evaluation rubric has been provided to use for assessment.

Extend

Consider these suggestions for extending the lesson.

1. Create a business plan for your fictional company in the one of the counties you chose.
2. Invite an audience to present your information to.