Unit 8 - Taking Action for a Sustainable Future: Citizenship, Solutions, and Agency
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May
OVERVIEW:
How can informed global citizens leverage evidence, diverse perspectives, and civic action to build sustainable solutions for complex global challenges?
In this final mini-unit of the World Studies course, students explore the concept of citizenship, their role as individuals in creating solutions, and the exercise of agency in promoting positive change. The unit focuses on the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for addressing global challenges. Students will reflect on how they can actively contribute to achieving these goals and where they fit in as individuals. The unit adopts a project-based approach, allowing students to engage in real-world problem-solving and apply their knowledge and skills to develop solutions. A case study will be used to provide a practical context for their project-based assessment. Furthermore, students will explore the question of "Where do we go from here?" and critically examine the issues that concern them the most and identify ways they can make a difference. Sustainable development will be a key theme, emphasizing the importance of balancing social, economic, and environmental considerations. Through research and interpretation of diverse viewpoints, including those of marginalized groups such as African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ communities, and religious minorities, students will gain a broader understanding of how policies and programs impact resource use and sustainability. Current issues will be researched and discussed, fostering civil discourse and encouraging students to engage as active community members at various levels of government to advocate for policy changes and individual/group rights. The unit aims to develop students' problem-solving skills and inspire them to find innovative solutions to global challenges.
The focus of each unit could include one or more of the following:
Anchor Event: Contemporary
Regional Focus: Varied
Concept: Sustainable Development
COLORADO MODEL CONTENT STANDARDS:
The highlighted evidence outcomes are the priority for all students, serving as the essential concepts and skills. It is recommended that the remaining evidence outcomes listed be addressed as time allows, representing the full breadth of the curriculum.
Students Can (Evidence Outcomes):
History: 1.1.a. Formulate compelling and supporting questions after evaluating primary sources for point of view and historical context.
History: 1.1.b. Gather and analyze historical information to address questions from a range of primary and secondary sources containing a variety of perspectives. For example: Perspectives of historically underrepresented groups.
History: 1.1.d. Construct and defend a historical argument that evaluates interpretations by analyzing, critiquing, and synthesizing evidence from a wide range of relevant historical sources.
History: 1.3.d. Examine and evaluate issues of unity and diversity in world history from the Renaissance to the present. For example: world conferences and international agreements (United Nations), and human rights issues.
Geography: 2.1.a. Analyze variations in spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics at multiple scales while gathering geographic data from a variety of valid sources. For example: Maps, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), graphs, and charts.
Geography 2.2.a. Identify, evaluate, and communicate strategies to respond to constraints placed on human systems by the physical environment.
Geography 2.2.d. Explain how altering the environment has brought prosperity to some places and created environmental dilemmas for others.
Geography: 2.2.e. Research and interpret viewpoints from diverse groups. Including but not limited to: African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities’ perspectives on issues that shape policies and programs for resource use and sustainability. For example: Immigration, resource distribution, universal human rights, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Geography: 2.2.f. Evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales.
Geography: 2.3.a. Explain how the uneven distribution of resources in the world can lead to conflict, competition, or cooperation among nations, regions, and cultural groups.
Civics: 4.1.a. Research and discuss current issues to participate in civil discourse.
Civics: 4.1.e. Engage as active community members with local, state, tribal, or federal levels of government on policy issues or for individual or group rights.
SKILLS and ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
Prepared Graduates (Students Can...)
Prepared Graduates (Students Can...)
1. Apply the process of inquiry to examine and analyze how historical knowledge is viewed, constructed, and interpreted.
2. Analyze historical time periods and patterns of continuity and change, through multiple perspectives, within and among cultures and societies.
3. Apply geographic representations and perspectives to analyze human movement, spatial patterns, systems, and the connections and relationships among them.
4. Examine the characteristics of places and regions, and the changing nature among geographic and human interactions.
6. Express an understanding of how civic participation affects policy by applying the rights and responsibilities of a citizen.
Colorado Essential Skills
Apply knowledge, skills, and habits gained from experiences to address issues, affect change, and/or solve problems (Civic Engagement).
Collaborate with individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds and/or cultures to address national and global issues, and to develop workable solutions (Global and Cultural Awareness).
Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts, including multilingual (Interpersonal Communication).
Synthesize ideas in original and innovative ways (Creativity and Innovation).
Apply knowledge and skills to implement sophisticated, appropriate, and workable solutions to address complex global problems using interdisciplinary perspectives independently or with others (Global and Cultural Awareness, Creativity and Innovation).
Historical thinkers understand that the ability to negotiate the complex relationships among change, diversity, and unity throughout world history is an essential attribute for success in a more interconnected world.
Historical thinkers analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights.
Geographic thinkers understand how geographic reasoning brings societies and nature under the lens of spatial analysis, and aids in personal and societal decision making and problem solving.
Geographic thinkers predict how human activities will help shape Earth’s surface and ways that people might cooperate and compete for use of Earth’s resources.
Geographic thinkers study how the physical environment is modified by human activities, including how human societies value and use natural resources.
Geographic thinkers understand how technology can support invention and influence how humans modify the environment in both positive and negative ways. For example: The renovation of existing buildings to “green” technologies, the prevention and prediction of natural hazards and disasters, and the use of satellite imagery to track water availability in the Middle East.
Civic-minded individuals can work effectively individually, and in groups, to influence public policy and the actions of government
Inquiry Questions
How might historical inquiry be used to better understand and make decisions about contemporary issues?
How might the physical geography of Earth change in the future?
How might people and societies respond to changes in the physical environment?
Disciplinary, Informational and Media Literacy
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Individually and with others, students construct compelling questions, and explain points of agreement and disagreement about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question.
Explain how compelling questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge
Collaborate with peers, experts, and others using contemporary media to contribute to a content related knowledge base to compile, synthesize, produce, and disseminate information.
Engage in civil discourse on historical topics using evidence as a basis for argument formation
Decision-making involves researching an issue, listening to multiple perspectives, and weighing potential consequences of alternative actions.
Academic Vocabulary and Language Expectations:
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, citizenship, responsibility, civil discourse, civic action, agency
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES:
This is a possible outline for going through the unit with the Savvas curriculum in mind, aligned with Savvas lessons and resources, as well as supplementary resources. At a minimum, utilize Topic 21, Lesson 4, but additional lessons can also be used.
Supplemental Instructional Resources
Supplemental Instructional Resources
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: video
United Nations: video
Mapping Environmental Justice: Lesson from Choices
Council on Foreign Relations: Global Development lesson and materials
DLMS Booksets
Global by Eoin Colfer (graphic novel)
POSSIBLE ASSESSMENTS:
Problem-Based Assessment: United Nations Earth Summit
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