CURRICULUM ANNOUNCEMENT: SDG 14 - 2nd Grade Unit Plan Is Out Now

By Judah Jones

One of our primary goals at MiniMUN is to expose children across schools to the educational and social benefits of Model UN. One of the biggest ways we do this is through our MUN curriculum, which uses the Sustainable Development Goals and key aspects of Model UN to teach a variety of ages about important issues facing the world. We are so proud to announce the newest addition to our curriculum for 2nd grade students, which focuses on SDG 14: Life Under Water!

As with all of our curriculum sets, this set of instructional classroom activities focuses on a subtopic within a Sustainable Development Goal set by the UN. While SDG 14 focuses on protecting life under water, our SDG 14 curriculum engages students to critically think specifically about how to maintain safe aquatic living environments through environmentally conscious solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the environmental crisis by actively engaging the issues of today in a variety of ways.

Our curriculum set comes with a number of educational resources made with both teachers and students in mind. The SDG 14 curriculum Teacher Guide uses flexible directions, helping to teach about key aspects of environmentalism while providing room for the personalization needed to get students thinking creatively and innovatively within the classroom. The “Kid Journalist” classroom job also provides an age-appropriate introduction to important research skills, guiding students towards their own understanding of the issues facing sustainability all around the world.

As part of the curriculum, teachers not only receive materials to introduce students to the problems of plastic pollution, but can also use engaging classroom activities as part of the final project: a mini conference simulation. In the conference simulation, students get to work collaboratively to design creative solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. Unique and immersive resources such as our tailor-made graphic organizers help students to come up with solutions. They begin by choosing a location to focus on, and then work in pairs to come up with possible ideas for how to resolve the issues of plastic pollution. And as part of the conference simulation, they also get to build their designs and see their hard work come to life!

The 2nd grade version of the curriculum is available right now - for free! Request it here. Curriculum is built for all educators, including classroom teachers, educational organizations, and students interested in running a MiniMUN chapter (look on our website for more information about starting chapters).

Stay tuned with this blog for more updates on new curriculum, developments in the UN, and all things MiniMUN!