A developing nation with a rapidly increasing population is reaching its carrying capacity. What change(s) could allow it to increase its carrying capacity? (Check all that apply.)A) A cultural shift to eating less meatB) Education for womenC) Greater yield from agricultural cropsD) Increased availability of birth controlE) Water treatment plants

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A, C, E

Clarify Question
• What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        o You are being asked to determine some factors that could increase the carrying capacity for a human population in a developing country.
• What type of thinking is required?
        o This is an analysis question; you will need to break the question down into its components in order to get to the answer. This is a check-all-that-apply question, there is more than one correct answer.

Gather Content
• What do you already know about the carrying capacity of a population? What other information is related to the question? 
        o Carrying capacity is the size of the population that can be supported by the environment. All individuals in the population consume some amount of resources. Anything that increases the amount of resources available or reduces the amount of resources an individual would use will increase the carrying capacity.

Choose Answer
• Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        o The carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals that a given environment can support. Anything that increases the food or water resources available to support people would increase carrying capacity, such as improved crop yields, a shift to vegetarian diets (which require far less land per calorie of food produced), and water treatment plants to produce clean water.

Reflect on Process
• Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        o Were you able to select all the correct answers? You needed to break down each of the choices and see if they could possibly increase the carrying capacity of the environment. Increasing the carrying capacity involves being able to support more individuals in the population, not limiting the size of the population.