Project Ideas
🌏Combine science, literature, social studies, math and the arts to create a global project to share with the world.
Lunch Time Around the World
❓Essential Question: How does food define culture?
What foods are eaten at school around the world? As a class, create a Google Form with questions that capture where the school is located and ask participants to include a picture of their school lunch on a given day.
Share your link on Twitter using the hashtag #globaled. Use student and families' contacts across the US and world and share the link with them. Social Media is always a great sharing platform.
Sample Questions to ask as you analyze the data:
What foods are eaten?
Why are these foods chosen for school lunch? (in season, price, local, etc).
Which school lunch would you like to try?
What do these lunches and yours have in common?
Are there foods you have never seen before?
Resource: Business Insider: What school lunches look like in 19 countries around the world.
Global Grocery List Project
❓What reasons effect the price of the same grocery items from one part of the country to another?
Create a list of basic grocery items people would purchase on a regular basis. Items such as rice, bread, flour, eggs, sugar, coffee, apples, chicken, and milk. Create a Google Form to collect data on location, unit price (ie. currency) and grocery price for each of the items. Ask students to share the link with contacts in other states across the USA. You can also share on Twitter using the hashtag #globaled.
Sample Questions to ask as you analyze the data:
Which items were the most expensive in each location?
Which items were the least expensive in each location?
Why might this items be more expensive in this part of the US or world than in another part?
What is the link between price and food scarcity?
What might be the reason fresh fruits and vegetables are easily available in suburban areas versus urban or low income areas?
Alternate Project Ideas:
Food Mapping. Have students explore where their food comes from. How many miles did the food have to travel to get to your plate? Why might that be?
Clothes Mapping: Have students explore where their clothes are made. Which countries and labels are know to use child labor? What child labo laws exist in the world?
Culture Collage (Appsmash Google Slides and Flipgrid)
❓How does culture define who we are as a people?
For this project, students will use a colalborative Google Slideshow to create a collage consisting images, text, and videos to showcase a location's culture or celebrate their own unique culture.
Steps:
The teacher will create a collaborative Google slide show with as many slides as students plus one extra for the title slide.
Assign each student a slide number and have them type their name in the speaker notes.
Each student is assigned a specific location to research its culture. This may include language, currency, religion, arts, architecture, dress, political system, etc.
The teacher will create a Flipgrid topic where students can create a brief 3-5 minute video sharing their slide information.
The teacher will take a screenshot of each student video's QR code and add it to that student's slide.
Students can view each other slides and scan the QR code with the Flipgrid app to participate in a virtual Gallery Walk.
F2F: Teacher can print each students' slide and QR code and create a Global Culture Collage hallway display.
Global Hall of Fame
❓Why are some people more celebrated internationally than others?
Students will showcase diverse people from around the world to create a global hall of fame using Adobe Spark Video.
Content Ideas:
Science-Inventors, Scientists, Doctors, Nurses
History-Politicians, Activists, Military
English Language Arts-Writers, Speakers
Arts-Artists, Musicians, Dancers
Math-Mathematicians
PE-Athletes, Coaches
Steps:
Choose a specific location(s)
Assign each student a specific person from that location or ask students to reseach and choose themselves.
Guide students on criteria to research: early life, education, important accomplishments in the field of (your content)
Students will use Adobe Spark Video to create and narrate a video sharing about this significant person and why they should be inducted into the global hall of fame.
Publish a Collaborative Book Using StoryJumper
❓What makes a book?
Students can create and author a collabrative book with another student around the world to showcase their knowledge around a specific topic.
Fourth grade teacher, Marina Dona Pozo, at Avery's Creek Elementary used StoryJumper as a tool for her student to create a book about NC Lighthouses. Her student Zoomed with a lighthouse keeper, researched North Carolina lighthouses and then created a children's book. The student collaborated with another student in Spain to author a bilingual book. Story Jumper will pair your students with students around the world who want to collaborate.
Below is a global book on Kindness that her students were a part of authoring.
The Journey of a T-Shirt. Made in America Challenge
❓Essential Question: How does the fashion and garment industry affect the globe?
Students learn about the global fashion industry through studying the journey of a t-shirt from creation to consumption. At the conclusion on this lesson have students use Adobe Spark to create an informational video sharing their new learning and what we can do to curb our consumption.
This lesson idea came from Erin at Let's Cultivate Greatness. She's a secondary Social Studies teacher with a passion for global education. A t-shirt is a simple piece of clothing we all own. Why not use a t-shirt to open our students' eyes to global awareness.
Begin by asking student to predict how many student shirts represented in the class that day are made in America. Then have them navigate to KQED's interactive graphic about America's shift in manufacturing to discover how manufacturing has changed in America since the 1960s. What do they notice and wonder about the decline of manufacturing in America?
Then ask students to explore Plant Money Makes a Shirt. Use the t-shirt graphic organizer to track the locations the 👕t-shirt travels before arriving in America.
Lastly, ask students to look at their t-shirt tag and post where their t-shirt was made on the collaborative Padlet below. How many were made in America? What does that mean for manufacturing as a part of our economy? Consider sharing the Padlet with other classrooms to contribute data.
Resources: Unicef Garment Industry and Children
Garment Brands Contribute to Low Wages & Child Labor in Bangladesh