Global learning and the Global Goals

Secondary Activity Kit

Introduction
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or 'Global
Goals') are a set of 17 ambitious targets that aim to end
poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.
In order to help your students understand the
significance of these new Global Goals to their future,
and the crucial role they could play in realising them,
why not fit the goals into some of your lessons, deliver
an assembly or carry out a special project with your
students?
Within this Activity Kit:

Getting started provides an introductory activity

for students to explore all of the Global Goals.

Getting critical suggests ways to critically analyse

the different themes presented by the Global Goals.

Taking action suggests practical things schools

and pupils can do to make the Global Goals better
known.

Finally the Resources section provides information

on where to find out more.

In the curriculum
Geography KS3: understand, through the use of
detailed place-based exemplars at a variety of
scales, the key processes in human geography
relating to: population and urbanisation;
international development; economic activity in
the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary
sectors; and the use of natural resources.
Geography KS4: development; population;
managing resources; climate change; sustainability;
ecosystems; globalisation; economic activity.
Science KS3: nutrition; the production of carbon
dioxide by human activity and the impact on
climate.
Science KS4: Health, disease and the
development of medicines; ecosystems; earth
and atmospheric science; energy.

Citizenship KS3: the roles played by public

institutions and voluntary groups in society, and
the ways in which citizens work together to
improve their communities, including
opportunities to participate in school-based
activities.
Citizenship KS4: local, regional and international
governance and the UKs relations with the rest
of Europe, the Commonwealth, the UN and the
wider world; human rights and international law;
the different ways in which a citizen can
contribute to the improvement of his or her
community, to include the opportunity to
participate actively in community volunteering,
as well as other forms of responsible activity.
See the individual goal pages on the Global
Dimension website for lots more teaching ideas
for various subjects: http://globaldimension.org.uk/
worldslargestlesson/.

Getting started: Exploring the Global Goals

Show students this short introductory video to the goals (6:20) https://vimeo.com/138852758
Then display or hand out the logos representing each of
the 17 Global Goals (these can be downloaded from:
www.wlltoolkit.org/brandassets.php - you will need to
block out the wording).
Can students identify what the goals are from the
logos? This will be quite tricky but should lead to some
good discussions.
Reveal what each of the goals are and follow with a brief discussion about the goals were
students surprised by any, do they think anything is missing?

Getting critical: 10 critical questions

At Think Global, we have created a set of 10 critical questions that can be used to explore and
analyse different global issues. (Read more here: globaldimension.org.uk/news/item/18690).
Working in groups, students could choose one of the Global Goals to analyse using these
questions, then discuss their findings together in a plenary session at the end of the lesson.
1. Where is this Global Goal an issue?
2. What will be the effects of this Global Goal on
people/environment/jobs etc. (as appropriate)?
3. What things can people do to support this Global Goal?
4. Who has the power to make decisions about this Global Goal?
5. Who does not have the power to make decisions about this
Global Goal?
6. Which people will benefit from this Global Goal?
7. Which people might lose out from this Global Goal?
8. How does my life link to this Global Goal?
9. How can we talk about this Global Goal in our community?
10. How can the effects of this Global Goal be shared equally?

Another option for exploring and

interrogating the Global Goals is to use the
Development Compass Rose Framework,
which was created and developed by
Tide~ Global Learning: www.tidec.org.

Taking action: Tell everyone!

The main aim of The Worlds Largest Lesson (see Resources section) is that as many young people as
possible know about the Global Goals. What can you and your students do to spread the word in your
school and local community? The Global Goals website has ideas, some of which we have listed below
(www.globalgoals.org/tell-everyone/).

Take a Global Goals selfie and tell everyone

Record and star in a global video and tell everyone
Choose a social share (see examples pictured here) and
tell everyone
Be creative and share the goals in your own way, then
tell everyone.

In an art, music, drama or dance lesson can your students come up with a creative way to spread the
message of the Global Goals? They could choose an arresting image, a song lyric or quote that they find
inspiring, or create something from scratch.
You could watch short videos from togetherTV or the
Guardian to exemplify some of the problems the Global
Goals are trying to tackle, and inspire students:
www.youtube.com/user/togethertv
www.theguardian.com/global-development/
global-development+content/video
This article on film-making and global learning could
provide some useful tips and ideas:
https://globaldimension.org.uk/news/item/17891
Choose one of the Global Goals to act on together as a class,
perhaps voting on the one you feel most passionate about.
Here are some ideas for actions you could take:

Create a school foyer display to inform others about the

topic and what you are doing

Do a research project to find out more about the topic

Write to your local paper or MP to campaign for change

Buy ethically think about fair trade, local produce and

low environmental impact

Waste less water, food, electricity.

Resources
Teachers around the world are being
encouraged to teach about the Global
Goals during the week beginning
27 September 2015, and get involved in
The World's Largest Lesson.
You can find all of the education materials
connected to The Worlds Largest Lesson
on these websites http://wlltoolkit.org/
and www.tes.com/worldslargestlesson
There are 21 lesson plans for KS2 and KS3,
assembly materials, posters, a comic and
teacher guidance notes.
The Global Dimension website has a bank
of over 100 resources that can be used to
teach about the goals:
globaldimension.org.uk/
worldslargestlesson/

This Global Goals Secondary Activity Kit is brought to you by Think Global www.think-global.org.uk.
We aim to support all teachers to bring a global dimension to their classroom. Join thousands of teachers and become part of
the Think Global Schools Network to receive free resources and up to date information about training and support.