Sustainable Development Goals

On Tuesday’s #worldgeochat the fabulous Jen Williams (@JenWilliamsEdu) hosted and led us through a great discussion on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  You can see the questions and introductory information here.  If you haven’t investigated these goals established by the United Nations in 2015 as the next step to follow the Millennium Development Goals, you need to do so ASAP.  The goals incorporate everything we as teachers of geography should care about and, more importantly, teach our students to care about.

The SDGs don’t often show up in standards or curriculum maps, but they are important concepts and a perfect match for any geography course.  Tuesday night, Ryan Churchward (@rmchurchward) shared an amazing chart aligning the Sustainable Development Goals with events, case studies and resources often included in World Geography courses.  It is a great starting point to incorporate the SDGs into your own geography or global studies curriculum.

In AP Human Geography or a thematic World Geography course, you can incorporate several goals into multiple units of study.  Good Health and Well-Being (Goal 3) would be included in a unit on Population.  Cultural Geography is a great place to talk about Goal 4 – Quality Education and Goal 5 – Gender Equality.  Reduced Inequalities (Goal 10), Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (Goal 16) as well as Partnerships for the Goals (Goal 17) all tie into many Political Geography standards.  Using the SDGs as an integrated part of your APHG curriculum can up the interest level by incorporating case studies and discussions on problems and solutions as they pertain to real world issues and events.  We need to be teaching students to be problem solvers and what better way than dealing with problems existing today.  If you are an APHG teacher participating in the AP with WE Service, the SDGs would also be a great place start building student interest when selecting service project topics.

Literature classes can also get in on sharing the Sustainable Development Goals with students.  There are many books, both fiction and non-fiction, that are available to pull in the SDGs.  “I Am Malala” addresses Malala Yousafzai’s story of fighting back against the Taliban in order to pursue education. This book addresses Goal 4 – Quality Education, Goal 5 – Gender Equality and Goal 10 – Reduced Inequality.  That’s quite a bang from one book.  A Long Way Gone shares the story of Ishmael Beah’s experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone and his journey through rehabilitation and healing.  Goal 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions is at the heart of this story.   Interested in finding more literature to support the SDGs? Worldgeochat is crowd sourcing a list on Google Docs.  Add an idea, take an idea.  We love collaboration!

Sustainable Development Goals also have a place in Environmental Science classes.  Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 13 – Climate Action, Goal 14 – Life Below Water and Goal 15 – Life on Land fall under several Environmental Science standards.  Including these goals into a study of environmental science allows for an inclusion of current events in the science classroom as well opportunities to suggest solutions, again building students’ problem solving skills.

Looking to get involved or get your students involved?  GlobalGoals.org has a list of organizations that can get you started.  The World’s Largest Lesson includes a Student Action drop down menu of activities to get students involved. This is a great way to get kids to take action.  To get started, read Chris’ post on his experiences with Taking Action with his students.

Looking for classroom ready ideas, lessons and activities?  Your first stop is TeachSDGs. This is the go-to resource for all things related to the Sustainable Development Goals. They have everything you need, including The World’s Largest Lesson.  The World’s Largest Lesson website has introductory lesson plans for all grade levels. The idea is for a large number of teachers to introduce the SDGs beginning on September 18th.  Designed as an awareness campaign, it is a perfect vehicle hook students on the importance of sustainability.  For additional graphics, resources and information follow both @teachsdgs and @worldslargestlesson on Twitter.  I think these Sustainable Development Goal Playing Cards are my favorite resource from Tuesday night’s  chat.  I’m already brainstorming ways I can use these in my classroom this year.  Finally, all students love Kahoot.  If you haven’t tried it out yet, here’s a Global Learning Kahoot to challenge your student’s knowledge of the SDGs.

What am I planning on doing in my classes this year to place more emphasis on the Sustainable Development Goals?  Using an idea from Quinn Rollin’s book Play Like a Pirate, I’m working on an SDG Superhero Project.  My idea is for students to choose one of the SDGs and develop a superhero to achieve that goal. I’m still in the planning stages, and I will be incorporating ideas from Tuesday night’s chat – creating a nemesis for one (thanks @MsIppolito).  I can’t wait to see what my students come up with – don’t worry I’ll be sure and share all about it here on the blog.

Do you have any plans or ideas on including Sustainable Development Goals in your course this year?  I hope you will take time and check out the resources linked above.  Sustainability, Gender Equality, Education, Health and Wellness are all issues of which our students should be aware, but more importantly, they should be eager to help find solutions.