Presenting the SDGs - A Lesson Learned

I love statistics.

I know, I know…I’m probably one of the few people that do. Numbers and statistics fascinate me. You can learn and extrapolate so much from them.

But how do you get elementary-aged children not only to understand them, but to be captivated so that they can learn from them?

That was the big question I had to deal with when trying to come up with a way to present the Sustainable Development Goals to about a hundred 4th and 5th graders at my school.

How do you break down the world’s issues into bit-sized chunks that they can relate to?

Then I remembered other activities to teach kids about the world. Years ago, Compassion International had an activity called The Compassion Project. It was designed to teach young people about those living in poverty and the privilege of the wealthy. While that game was a little above the heads of my students, I realized that we needed an activity which allowed the students to BE the world.

I came across the book If the World Were a Village by David Smith & Shelagh Armstrong. A great explanation of the world’s demographics that a child could read and understand. However, it’s filled with statistical information. How could I bring those statistics to life?

As I went through the pages, I saw that If the World Were a Village was based on a population of 100. We had about 100 students. BINGO! The idea for an activity was born.

I created cards that gave the individuals some basic facts of their existence: What continent they lived on, Education level – whether they were literate or not, Basics – whether they had clean water, electricity, and sanitation/toilet access. In addition, I broke down the average daily income per person into $1 or less, $1.25, $2, $2.50 and all those above. The students were given a card, with various letters and numbers written on them, as they came to the room. They were randomly assigned their life. They were to find their continent and sit down with the rest of the people in their group.

After some discussion about what they noticed about the population and the continents, I slowly revealed what the letters on the card meant.

It was more powerful than I imagined.

Comments of how crowded Asia was, why so many in Africa had no water or sanitation, and “This isn’t fair” went through the group.

I was amazed at how the students understood the underlying idea of what the world is like and the inequitable distribution of resources. They were confused, angry, perplexed.

Most importantly, they were motivated.

That was the beginning of their quest to meet the target goals for the SDGs.

Many of those 4th graders are now in my 5th grade class. Several are begging on a daily basis: “When are we going to do the SDGs?”

Now that’s what I call a lesson learned.

I have included a copy of this activity in the Teacher Resources section of my Global Education Guide under Sustainable Development Goals. Click HERE to go to that page.