Population Education Resources

This article provides information on those population education materials and services which are available from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and explores their usefulness in secondary school and college environments. PRB data sheets are a most useful source of information. Demographic and socioeconomic information (birth and death rates, natural increase, population doubling times, projections for the year 2000, life expectancies, per capita gross national product, etc.) are included. The World's Women Data Sheet is a special publication issued to mark the midway point of the UN Decade for Women. 161 countries are included with information on demographic, health, employment, and educational status of women. There is a nominal cost for these data sheets. To help students learn about population dynamics and world patterns of population, mapping exercises can be developed. The Population Bulletin is published 6 times/year and each issue concentrates on specific aspects of population. The 28 bulletins which have been published since January 1976 are listed. The PRB Chart Series is a multicolor graphic presentation of topical issues in population and development trends worldwide. A total of 26 charts in 4 series have been produced and cover such topics as world population growth, urbanization, world energy consumption, age structure in the U.S., and adolescent pregnancy in the U.S. This material is best used with high school students. A monthly international population news magazine called Intercom is desinged to inform about worldwide trends and activities in population and family planning. It is published in both English and Spanish and is a useful source of current information in capsulized form. For population educators there is the bimonthly newsletter Interchange. PRB's teaching-learning modules are valuable publications for teachers. Thus far there are 9, each of which is a self-contained unit with classroom activities for junior high to college students. Each one outlines a problem and then presents methods which can stimulate discussion and provoke interest. 2 special publications on special interest topics (Population Handbook; Population Education: Sources and Resources) are described. PRB may well be the best single source of population education materials which will hopefully be used and incorporated into teaching.