Human Development Index

Worlds Apart

 

The difference between life in Canada and life in other parts of the world can sometimes be astounding.  People in some developing countries live on a fraction of our income, our energy, our consumption, and our food.  We can use some of our geographic skills to look at how different life can be from what we have become accustomed to.  This project aims to do that!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

Instructions

1. Get into groups of 2-4 people.  Larger groups will be expected to go beyond the general requirements to make up for the number of people
2. Choose one of the bottom 10 countries from the UN's most recent HDI.  You will investigate this country and compare it to life in Canada by using a variety of methods.
3. Review the expectations and the marking guideline as a group.  Then split up the tasks.
4. Do your research and put it on a poster!
5. Make your presentations

Data to be Included:

Open InspireData / Databases / Countries of the World / copy the information for your two countries

i.     Position on the HDI for the last 5 recorded years

ii.    Life Expectancy for both males and females

• x-axis:  country
• y-axis:  life expectancy (male/female)
• comment on findings and save to a slide

iii.   Literacy Rate

• x-axis:  country
• y-axis:  life expectancy
• comment on findings and save to a slide

iv.    Infant Mortality Rate

• x-axis:  country
• y-axis:  Infant Mortality Rate in 2000 (per 1000 live births)
• comment on findings and save to a slide

v.     Disease that pose a major threat

vi.    GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for the country

• x-axis:  country
• y-axis:  Gross Domestic Product
• Who has the highest/lowest GDP?  What impact does a lower GDP have on a country.  Answer these questions and save to a slide

vii.   Who has the highest/lowest levels of agriculture?

• x-axis:  country
• y-axis:  % agriculture
• Explain the relationship between these results and GDP.  Save to a slide.

viii.  What are the major natural resources which support the economies of your country?  Explain what types of industry exist in your countries.  What is the % of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary industry?

vii.  Labour force by occupation, how does this relate to types of industry (primary, secondary or tertiary, is the distribution of labour connected to the types of industry in your countries)

viii.  Unemployment rate

ix.   % Of Population Living Below Poverty Line

x.   If you are able to, determine the Infant Mortality Under Five Rate for each country

xi.  Life Expectancy

• x-axis:  country
• y-axis:  life expectancy
• add the mean from the Options menu.  What do you notice?  TYpe your answer and create a slide.

xii.   Is there a relationship between Life Expectancy and Literacy Rates in Sub-Saharan Africa?

• Switch from Database Template to Countries of the World
• use a Venn diagram
• Use Plot/View Constraint to select Sub-Saharan Africa
• type in exactly (including punctuation marks): 'Region'="Sub-Saharan Africa"
• one loop:  Adult Literacy, F (%) < 50
• another loop:  Life Expectancy, F 1995-2000 < 55
• Explain your findings and create a slide

2.  The following items need to be created or calculated by your group for both countries:

i.     Population Pyramid

ii.    Population Density & Distribution (on a map)

iii.   Birth rate, death rate, and doubling time

iv.    Dependency ratio

• Return to Database Template
• x-axis:  select country
• y-axis:  select Annual Population Change 2000-2005
• show the mean (available under the Options menu)
• in the notes section, write the name of the country experiencingt the greatest amount of change
• Save a copy of your slide

3.   The following items need to be researched from the class atlases for both countries:

i)     Major uses of land (see land use)

ii)    Climate (p. 122-123)

iii).   Environment Damage, e.g. deforestation (p. 127)

iv).   Energy use (p. 144)

v).    Fresh water available (p. 130)

vi).   Urban Population

• x-axis:  countries
• y-axis:  % Pop Urban 1975-2002
• add the Mean from the Options menu
• which country has the highest % urban population?  least?
• type your answers on a slide and save

      Annual change in percent of people living in urban areas (2000-2005)

• x-axis:  countries
• y-axis:  annual population change, urban
• add the Mean from the Options menu
• What do you notice?  Type your answer and create a slide?

4.    The following items need to be answsered in paragraphs for only the developing country:

i)     affect of immigration and/or emigration on the country

ii)    a recent political history including any recent or ongoing wars

iii)   Environmental problems faced both now and in the future

iv)   Aid available to the government and/or people and any restrictions

Presentation

Length:  5 minutes

Guidelines: 

• all group members should speak
• your presentation should provide an overview of the differences noted
• the information you decide to include is up to you
• should be prepared and practiced once ahead of time
• try to have a 'wow effect' such as a multimedia, a video, some pictures, etc.

Marking

• poster appearance / 10
• research and information / 45
• section one / 7
• section two / 12
• section three / 10
• section four / 16
• presentation / 10
• total mark:  / 65

Why global living standards?

Income is very unequally distrbuted among people around the world.  In the year 2000, the richest 20% of people owned 74% of the world's income.  More than 1 billion people lived on less than $1 per day, but the world is moving toward our goal of cutting global poverty in half by 2015.

Two-thirds of the people living in Africa  and almost a quarter of people living in Asia are poor by global standards.  Income effects how people live in very real ways.  Almost 20% of children born in Afric south of the Sahara Desert will die before their first birthday, partly because of poverty.  But knowing something about it is the beginning of helping to do something about it.

This activity looks at the differences between how people live all over the world and how we measure human development.  People all around the world are working togeher to help everyone toward a better life.