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UN Sustainability Goals Tournament with Andrea Wong

Kathy Hays

I always love the last few weeks of the school year… and not just because they are the last few weeks of the school year! Many of my favorite OER activities are from Era 7, such as The Dollar Street Project, The World in 2050, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. What I love most about them is the way they challenge students to think critically and discover ways they can actively shape and influence the future of our world. 

 This year I decided to revamp the way I introduce the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In the past I noticed that my students often chose six goals at random without giving it much thought. This led to them researching a goal they didn’t feel passionately about and resulted in lackluster action on their part when they got to the final portion of the activity. Here are the steps I took to encourage students to be more intentional with their choices.

1. Many of my students were still unclear about the true meaning of sustainability.I started class with this video from UCLA and asked students to write their own definition of sustainability.

2. Next, we watched We the People to get a general overview of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

3. I then assigned each student one goal and gave them 5-10 minutes to do a quick read on the goal, analyze the infographic, and write down the facts they found to be most shocking or      interesting. I used the first goal, End Poverty in All Its Forms Everywhere, to model this activity for them. 

4. Next came the competition! Although all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals are significant, I wanted to see which matters my students felt were most pressing. I used this   template to make a single elimination bracket. For each match I had students share what they learned about the goal they were assigned and then had all students get up and out of their seats to vote for the goal they felt was most imperative (go to the front of the room to vote for goal 1, the back of the room for goal 2, and so on). I did this purely based on numbers and gave students a sticky note to jot down their thoughts as they moved around the room, particularly with the matches they disagreed with. 

5. The competition inspired informal debates between students but also helped them discover a goal they were more passionate about. My students are still in the midst of their research and action plans, but based on what I’ve seen so far their action plans are already more meaningful. I was also able to share some articles from the new Climate Project since so many of the goals align with climate change. A few students were even inspired to take the semester-long course next school year!

  • What are your favorite end of year activities?
  • How do you ensure students choose topics they are passionate about?
  • Who else is planning to teach the new Climate Project?

 Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

  •  Thank you so much for sharing! I love activities like this that get students to debate informally and just get them out of their seats this time of year. Reminds me of when I would play the AP World version of Cards Against Humanity and the kids would debate why something was or was not funny (like, this isn't even the right time period or that was soooooo out of context! Haha!). Just curious, which goal was the winner from the single-elimination bracket? I am glad they are working hard on those action plans. It will be great to see if they are more in-depth than last year because of this activity. I am sure they will be so good. 

  • Kathy Hays said:
    What are your favorite end of year activities?

    The World in 2050 seems like such a fun activity! My favorite end of year activity is the Little Big History Project! We have a fair at my school down in the auditorium, so it really feels like a celebration of learning. It's 3 weeks until our fair and it is officially GO time! I'm excited to see each students' BHP topics go from written papers to creative poster boards & presentations! 

    In terms of having students choose topics they are passionate about- I find that this takes time. It actually took me a while to feel okay with a little  unstructured research time. This is essential in trying to find topics that students actually are interested in! 

  • I appreciate the post  because there were some activities I did not know that existed. I use my own version of the Dollar Street activity for another course (AP Human Geography) and coincidentally it is quite similar to this one; but now that I read this version, I will adopt it. If I had time I would love to include it for Big History. The Dollar Street is a big window into the real world and an eye-opening experience for my students.

    For the end of the year in Big History I used the Gapminder Card Sort activity and then a final group project where my students had to predict the next threshold and determine the ingredients, the goldilock conditions, and the emergent properties. But this year I decided to change and ask them to create podcast about the future. They will work in groups during this week as the end of the year is approaching soon. We will see how it goes. 

  •  I am curious to know which goals were the most pressing for your students and if goal # 5 Gender Equality was one of them. I ask because from my experience, students not always choose such an important pending issue for our humanity. Maybe it is because they don't know the degree to which the level of disparities among genders affect both, developed and developing countries. 

  • Andrea, thanks for sharing the UCLA video! I hadn't seen that one before and am adding it to my plans for next year. 

    Like you, I've sometimes struggled with getting students to buy into their selection of UN Sustainable Development goals. I decided to address this by opening the globalization unit with the Gapminder Worldview Upgrader to identify misconceptions. Then, when we got to the UN Sustainable Development lessons, I asked students to use the Gapminder activity to identify areas of interest. Likewise, I encouraged them to select areas that align with careers they may wish to pursue. Lastly, I reduced the number of goals students researched to encourage more depth. 

  • in reply to Jessica Lindenmeier

      , I love school versions of Cards Against Humanity! That is another great activity for informal debates. I wonder if anyone made an OER version yet? Might be a great bonus point activity for my classes. Slight smile

    I had two classes complete the bracket. One class chose Sustainable Cities & Communities & the other chose Affordable and Clean Energy. It was definitely not unanimous though! There were a lot of sighs and eye rolls as we went through the bracket. 

  • in reply to Adriane Musacchio

     , it is amazing that you have a fair to showcase all of your students' hard work! Are parents able to stop by to see all of the projects? Or are other classes able to attend? I would love to hear more about how the fair is structured. 

  • in reply to Laura Massa

     , I never used the Gapminder Card Sort activity so thank you for sharing! This sounds like a great one to include and I love your idea to add a podcast this year. Please let me know how it turns out!

  • in reply to Laura Massa

    I had two classes complete the bracket. One class chose Sustainable Cities & Communities & the other chose Affordable and Clean Energy. For one class, Gender Equality was a hot topic and caused much debate. Several students in that class decided to pursue Gender Equality for their research.

  • in reply to Anne Koschmider

     , thank you for sharing the Gapminder Worldview Upgrader. I added that to my plans for next year as well. I'm not sure if I should have them do it before or after the bracket though! 

    I also really like how you challenge students to think about future careers. That is one part of the Climate Project that I am looking forward to the most.