When the United Nations was created in 1945, it served to bring countries together to prevent future wars and to collaborate on solving global challenges like poverty, injustice, and inequality. Since then, the world has faced new and evolving crises—from climate change to global pandemics to widening economic gaps—that demand urgent, united action.
Login to add Inquiry to Stack
About the inquiry
Compelling Question
What should the United Nations tackle first?
Standards
D2.Civ.13.9-12. Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
Instructional Snapshot
Class begins with students brainstorming answers to the question, “What measures could you use to determine how much aid a country needs?” and sharing their ideas as the teacher records them on the board. The teacher introduces the United Nations’ role in addressing these challenges and presents the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global roadmap for progress. Students are then divided into small groups to group the 17 UN goals into 3-4 meaningful categories based on common themes. Students may create their own titles, or the teacher may provide more structured guidance by introducing titles such as Environmental, Social, Economic, and Health. Students then collaborate on a title for each group that captures its central focus and rank their goal categories from highest to lowest priority, taking into account long vs. short-term impacts. Finally, students justify their ranking and produce a claim about which UN goal from their top-ranked category should be addressed first, using evidence from the infographic to support their claim.
Formative Tasks
COLLABORATE: Group the 17 UN sustainability goals into student-titled categories.
DELIBERATE: Rank the created UN categories from “highest” to “lowest” priority and justify.
PRODUCE: Identify which goal the UN should tackle first and craft a claim that answers the compelling question.
Sources
Source A: United Nations Sustainability Goals, United Nations
Summative Performance Task
No data found.
Taking Informed Action
No data found.