THIS WEEK
Tuesday – Central America & Population
Pyramids
Wednesday - Google Earth
Thursday – Welcome Mrs. Julie Vargas,
Haiti/Dominican Republic
Friday –
Work Day for Demographics Project
CENTRAL AMERICA
BANANA
REPUBLICS?
Beginning with the late 1800s, giant
corporations dominated Central America.
These corporations built railroads and
planted bananas on the land adjacent to the
railroads, making it easy for them to
transport the fruit to U.S. markets.
PUSH-PULL FACTORS
It’s a cycle in
history!
It’s called an ISTHMUS
A narrow strip of land,
with water on both sides,
that connects two larger
bodies of land.
What did
the
Panama
Canal
mean to
the
shipping
industry?
PANAMA CANAL
How do they work?
History Channel
Another view
DIVERSE LANDFORMS & CLIMATES

The Mountainous Core
Huge mountains- Difficult to cross
Problem for transportation - Volcanoes

Caribbean Lowlands
Dense rain forest vegetation
Tropical wet climate, hot & humid

Pacific Coastal Plain
Tropical wet and dry climates
CONSIDER THESE FACTS

Central America is the size of France or Texas

Central America has only 0.5% of the world's land
mass, yet 7% of the world's species.

In 1950, tropical rain forests covered about 60% of
Central America. Today, it's about half.

The worst offender is El Salvador, which cut down
95% of its forests.
SLASH-AND-BURN AGRICULTURE
One of the
traditional types
of farming in
Central America.
Farmers cut down vegetation with
machetes (“slash”), make small piles of
the cut brush, and set them afire (“burn”).
video
POPULATION PYRAMIDS
http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php
These tell us a lot about a country’s
population makeup
What does this tell us?
Stable pyramid - A population pyramid showing an
unchanging pattern of fertility and mortality.
Stationary pyramid - A population pyramid typical of
countries with low fertility and low mortality, very similar
to a constrictive pyramid.
What does this tell us?
Expansive pyramid - A population pyramid showing a broad base, indicating a
high proportion of children, a rapid rate of population growth, and a low
proportion of older people. This wide base indicates a large number of children.
A steady upwards narrowing shows that more people die at each higher age
band. This type of pyramid indicates a population in which there is a high birth
rate, a high death rate and a short life expectancy. This is the typical pattern for
less economically developed countries, due to little access to and incentive to
use birth control, negative environmental factors (for example, lack of clean
water) and poor access to health care.
What does this tell us?
Constrictive pyramid - A population pyramid showing lower numbers or
percentages of younger people. The country will have a greying population
which means that people are generally older, as the country has long life
expectancy, a low death rate, but also a low birth rate. This pyramid has been
occurring more frequently, especially when immigrants are factored out, and is
often a typical pattern for a very developed country, a high over-all education and
easy access and incentive to use birth control, good health care and few or no
negative environmental factors.
More Examples
More Examples