Population Education

Educating the Next Generation

A central part of our mission, since our earliest days, has been to educate the next generation of leaders, voters, and parents to think critically about population trends and how they impact the natural world and human well-being. We do this through our Population Education (PopEd) program, which is geared toward K-12 students, and through outreach to college and university professors and their students.

Without our programs, most American students wouldn’t be exposed in a meaningful way to population concepts—we work every day to reach as many young people as possible with classroom materials that encourage them to think about their place in supporting sustainable development, conservation, and human health and rights. We strive to prompt thoughtful discussions about our roles and responsibilities as only one of millions of species that share this finite planet.

Population Education (PopEd) for K-12

Our PopEd program is 50 years old this year! Founded in 1975, it is the only program of its kind in Northern America. Our dedicated staff are continuously developing and updating lesson plans for K-12 teachers and non-formal educators to use with their students, typically in their science, social studies, and math classes. Through our curriculum materials, students learn about resource scarcity and inequities around resource distribution; the polluting nature of agriculture, resource extraction, and energy production; human-caused threats to biodiversity; humanity’s place in a world of millions of species that have intrinsic value and also support our continued existence on this planet; and more.

PopEd staff and our large network of volunteer Teacher Trainers throughout the country lead workshops with pre-service teachers who are in college studying to become professional educators. Staff also present at teaching conferences and host two Leadership Institutes each year where dozens of new Teacher Trainers develop the skills needed to train other teachers in using our curriculum materials.

In addition to all the work our PopEd program does with teachers and future teachers, our popular World of 8 Billion student video contest allows us to work directly with middle and high school students around the world who submit 60-second videos on one of three topics chosen by our staff each year. There are cash prizes for the top videos, and winning students are featured in Population Connection magazine and may even appear in their local news through our media outreach campaign following the close of the contest each year.

Population Studies for Higher Education

Each year, we deliver presentations to over 100 college and university classes, at the request of professors across the country who are teaching ecology, biology, geography, gender studies, public health, and other related courses. These lectures typically last about an hour, and they introduce college students to population trends and dynamics and how they intersect with environmental challenges; climate and social justice; and efforts to improve reproductive health and rights, women’s empowerment, and gender equity.

In addition to giving presentations at various institutions of higher learning throughout the academic year, we teach a five-week, full-credit summer course at the University of North Carolina. Students from the entire UNC system are welcome and encouraged to enroll in the virtual, discussion-based course, which features guest speakers from around the world who work in related fields. We started teaching this course to undergraduate students in 2023, and in 2025, we will extend the invitation to graduate students as well. The course gets consistently positive reviews from students who take it, many of whom say they had never heard about or been challenged to discuss population pressures and their impact on so many critical issues facing people and the planet.

Read more about each of our education programs by clicking on the links below!