Culture

In this lesson you will analyze demographic data and explore relationships between several cultural characteristics of nations.

Students will

	analyze demographic data and distinguish countries based on demographic differences between them; and
	develop and test hypotheses about the sources of demographic differences.

You will need this country information sheet, which lists demographic statistics for several actual but unidentified countries. [Note: Eventually you will be looking these statistics up on the Internet and matching them to a list of countries you will provide, but for now, the countries should stay unidentified.]

Ask students the following questions about the data:

How could we sensibly group this data?
Which countries would you classify together within the groups you suggest? Students should divide countries "A" through "N" into a few groups that share common characteristics.

Divide the class into small groups and have group members share their conclusions with each other. You need to reach a consensus on the establishment of three groups of countries. Then one student from each team will write its three groups on the board for comparison.

Label your three groups. There are a variety of ways to do this, for example, "developed," "underdeveloped," and "undeveloped." You should identify correlations and speculate on relationships between some of the demographic variables on the country information sheet.

Examples:

Students may discern the positive correlation between total fertility rates and maternal mortality ratio. Have students suggest reasons for the variability in both of these figures and for the apparent relationship between them.
Ask questions about the relationship between literacy rates and fertility rates. Why might countries with low rates of literacy have high fertility rates? Ask students what aspects of a country's common culture might have an impact on the variables. Point out that the level of technological development and various traditions can strongly influence these variables.
Countries having low female literacy rates might also be countries in which women have difficulty participating in politics and getting good jobs. Ask students which factors can influence literacy rates and contraceptive usage. (Religion, cultural traditions and values, and the level of technological development are some.)

Explore additional relationships and make inferences.

Formulate a hypothesis based on the demographic data contained on the country information sheet. For example, a student might respond: "Countries that have high total fertility rates and high maternal mortality rates will tend to have poor health care."

Next, have students explore the statistics at the Population Reference Bureau's Datafinder and the CIA World Factbook 2002 to match the unidentified countries on their list with the following countries:

Finland
Mexico
Syria
India
Tanzania
Russia
Japan
United States
Philippines
Brazil
South Africa
China
Nigeria
Australia

Check answers as a class.

Can students think of any ways that the statistics they analyzed might be deceptive? For example, is the maternal mortality rate different in South Africa or the United States, depending on race or poverty level?

Have each group of students choose one of the countries from the list to study further. They can find information by searching for individual country information on the following sites:

National Geographic
BBC News: Country Profiles
Google (or other general search engine)
Population Reference Bureau
United Nations

	How could we sensibly group this data?
	Which countries would you classify together within the groups you suggest? Students should divide countries "A" through "N" into a few groups that share common characteristics.

	Students may discern the positive correlation between total fertility rates and maternal mortality ratio. Have students suggest reasons for the variability in both of these figures and for the apparent relationship between them.
	Ask questions about the relationship between literacy rates and fertility rates. Why might countries with low rates of literacy have high fertility rates? Ask students what aspects of a country's common culture might have an impact on the variables. Point out that the level of technological development and various traditions can strongly influence these variables.
	Countries having low female literacy rates might also be countries in which women have difficulty participating in politics and getting good jobs. Ask students which factors can influence literacy rates and contraceptive usage. (Religion, cultural traditions and values, and the level of technological development are some.)