This is the fifth unit in a series that introduces population concepts into the eighth grade American history curriculum. (See SO 013 782 for an overview of the guide.) In Episode V, the history topic is westward movement, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Objectives are to help the student to (1) examine the westward migration in terms of its effect on the population distribution and the population composition of the United States during the nineteenth century; (2) scrutinize the impact of rapid population growth and technological innovations in the West and examine the impact that population growth and technological innovation may have had on resources available in the Plains; (3) survey the socioeconomic effects of rapid population growth by an agricultural group of people in an area previously settled by a less nomadic group; (4) review the distribution of the Blacks after the Civil War and the role they played in westward migrations; and (5) evaluate student learning and reinforce conceptual understanding of population change in the West of the nineteenth century. Activities include involving students in reading and discussing materials, developing a bar graph of the age composition of the U.S. population in 1850 for three regions, completing questionnaires on their personal migration, and tracing the Sioux's lifestyle prior to the westward movement. (NE)