CFR Education: Sustainable Development Goals
Articles/Websites
Grades9, 10, 11, 12, APEconomics, Civics, English Language Arts
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Provided by Council on Foreign Relations
What it is
- This article provides a detailed explanation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and includes graphs, tables, infographics, and colorful images.
- Students will learn the history of the SDGs, the focus and interconnectedness of the SDGs, and how close the goals are to being achieved.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This text stresses the interconnectedness of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- As each policy/improvement is mentioned, they picture the many goals that are involved.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students may need the terms degradation, impoverished, developing country, developed country, municipality, and others defined prior to reading the article.
- Students should know what the United Nations is and how countries work together to promote the common good.
Differentiation
- Students can discuss the tradeoffs that countries experience as they achieve certain goals, such as the environmental tradeoff as a result of China's poverty-reducing measures.
- Each student can choose one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals to further research and produce an informative piece of writing about, including success criteria and current policies contributing to this goal in their own country or country of interest.
- Civics students describe how a country might design improvements through policy to contribute to the SDGs.
- As inequality, poverty, access to education, and gender equality are all pieces of the SDGs, students may want to research the history of inequality in a country of their choice.
From the scientist review
This article introduces the idea of Sustainable Development Goals, what they mean, and how the UN, and other countries, are using them to guide their future. These goals are UN goals that will help people across the world live better lives, while still protecting our environment. The article is easy to understand and is a great example of what large organizations are trying to do to combat climate change. The information presented is accurate and this resource is recommended for teaching.
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