I used the book «If the Earth was a village...» by David J. Smith published in 2002 to do an integrated lesson highlighting the differences between rich and poor on our planet. I had already used the book last year to talk about other subjects, such as languages spoken around the world and money matters. I told students that we were going to represent graphically the numbers mentioned in the book, first with math manipulatives then on paper.
Each pair of students received two flats (hundreds), rods (tens), and unit cubes along with small unifix cubes of various colors. The flats were the village (the Earth) and the other manipulatives were to represent the people (60 millions for each unit cube). We discussed the fact that, not long ago, it was announced that the human population was now 7 billion and that there was a good possibility that each unit cubes would represent 70 million people. But, in the end, we decided to stay with the author’s figure at the time of printing.
In French, we have been studying words and doing dictations for our annual PGL Dictation fundraising event. The Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation is a charity that raises fund for countries in Africa and Haïti. The foundation also organizes regional and international spelling competitions. Four years ago, a student of mine won at the regional level and went on to compete in Montreal where he meet French speaking children from Africa and Haïti. The magazine that the Foundation provides explains how very different children’s lives are in these countries.
Decimals, fractions and percentages are the concepts most in my class are now studying in Math, except for the most advanced students who have recently moved on to the study of circles and/or angles. The use of Math manipulatives, allowed everyone to understand the differences between haves and have-nots outlined in «If the Earth was a village...» It also highlighted how much more demanding our way of living is when it comes to energy, water and food use. My students understood that the 7 village people (420, 000,000 human beings or 7% of the world population) who could power computers with electricity, also had the use of lights, telephones, televisions and radios. We, living in Canada, have the largest ecological footprint of all.