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Geography · Grade 6

Population and Settlement Patterns

Why do more than eight billion people crowd into some places and leave others almost empty? Learners map dense and sparse regions, explain them with physical and human factors, calculate population density and see what an average can hide. They then investigate why settlements grow where they do — site and situation — and classify settlement patterns and the settlement hierarchy.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 minutes
  • Population and settlement check: 10 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, estimate, pin a map, pick map regions, match pairs and type a number
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What learners will discover

  • Describe the uneven distribution of the world's population and explain it with physical and human factors.
  • Calculate and compare population density, and explain why an average density can hide large differences within a country.
  • Explain a settlement's site and situation and use them to judge why a place grew or where a new settlement should go.
  • Classify settlement patterns (dispersed, nucleated, linear) and order settlements in a hierarchy by size and services.

Lessons

  1. Where do eight billion people live? 7 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  2. Measuring crowding: population density 6 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  3. Site and situation: why settlements grow where they do 5 steps3 practiceabout 22 min
  4. Settlement patterns and the settlement hierarchy 6 steps3 practiceabout 20 min
  5. Population and settlement check 10 questions at the end

Keep exploring

Games to practice with

  • Globe ExplorerSpin a real 3D globe, flip to the flat map, and find continents, oceans and countries.
  • Pin the PlanetDrag the pin onto wonders, cities and exact latitude and longitude points.
  • Route PlannerFind the shortest way around town, dodge closed roads, and measure trips with a scale bar.

More 6th grade geography

Guide for grown-ups