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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.

  • in reply to Andrea Wong

      I created this more updated gapminder map with data from 2015 (the one in the activity is from 2010).

  • in reply to Andrea Wong

     Sounds like they had some tough decisions to make! I would have been hard pressed to not sigh as well, haha!

  • in reply to Andrea Wong

    Definitely something we all look forward to! It’s nice to end the year with some excitement :) We typically take photos for the families to view after the fair. The fair itself is open to the internal school community only, so different classes come down during different periods to come celebrate and learn with us. Students set up period 1, present periods 2-5 (the same way one would during a science fair). I have tables set up with stations. Each student station has a trifold board and a laptop for a Google slide or anything else they’d like to show digitally. Students are asked to have some kind of “fun” or interactive component. For example, my Endorphins group will be having a small basketball hoop station where they have visitors try to get a ball in the hoop. The idea they have is to allow their audience to release some endorphins during their presentation on endorphins (cool right?!). Though each group will get many visitors throughout the day, they will be judged by only 3-4 judges on the BHP LBHP project rubric. Judges are a combo of former BHP students & teachers of all different subject areas. We eat lunch period 6 and have an award ceremony period 7! That’s pretty much how the day goes.

    Let me know if you have any other questions! If you have the time I highly recommend trying it out one year! It is so much fun :) 

  • Thanks for sharing this excellent project  . I think this is an excellent plan for the end of the year and really appreciate how you use this Climate Project to make connections with your students. This year I will actually be ending the year with a Final Exam on all of the content we have reviewed throughout the course of the year. I haven't done this in the past so, I am curious to see if students can apply all that we have examined throughout the course of the year into one assessment. 

  • I think I am going to use this in my globalization unit in my geography course.  I am not going to teach the climate course.  I think it would ruffle some feathers in my community but I like the idea of grabbing some lessons from the Climate Course and Era 7.  

  • in reply to Andrea Wong

     it went very well. I posted some examplars in this thread.

  • in reply to Jeffrey Boles

    We have mandatory final exams in my district, but it is frustrating because we are only allowed to assess students on content from January onwards. I try to incorporate as many skill based questions as possible for the final since I think everything we discuss is important and worthwhile!

  • in reply to Eric Schulz

      , it is unfortunate that it would ruffle feathers in your community as it is such an important topic. I'm glad you can at least incorporate the sustainability goals and allow students to choose what is important to them to research in more detail. 

  • in reply to Laura Massa

     , I'm glad it went well! Heading to the thread you shared to read about it and other successes from this month. 

  • Thanks for the bracket idea Andrea.  I really like that method.  I always do a Dollar Street project by not as much with the UN goals, but I like that this at least asks students to think about them and make decisions about their significance.  I think I'll use that method next year.