UN Sustainable Development Goals
FutureMakers is proud to align our work with the UN’s Global Goals. These 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed upon in 2015 by world leaders, aim to create a better, fairer, world by 2030 – ending poverty, urgently addressing climate change and ending inequality.
By creating a focus on these goals as an integral part of our schools’ curriculum, we not only contribute towards the achieving of these goals by the 2030 target, we also prepare and equip our young learners with the skills, knowledge and dispositions they will require to thrive into the future.
The SDGs provide a valuable context for learning in your school – lots of the resources listed below provide ideas and activities that can easily be incorporated into your planning in many of the areas of the curriculum you already work with. It’s not all about having to be engaged in large-scale, global projects either. The SDGs can provide the focus for so much of what you do locally, enabling your learners to understand the importance and impact of their decisions and actions at a local level in terms of these global issues.
The purpose of this page is to share some of the SDG resources that provide educators with valuable information, activities and project ideas to use with students. If you know of or have created other resources that would be helpful to share please share these using the comments box at the bottom of the page.
SDG links and resources
SDG Planning Calendar: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-planning-calendar/
A month by month overview of the specific events and areas of focus through all of 2021. Start here to get these events into your calendar as you plan your themes and topics for this year.
UN SDG Home Page: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
A great place to start to read about the history of the SDGs and the approaches being taken or supported by the UN. There’s a useful video on the front page that provides an overview and introduction. There are also links to upcoming events and news items in the menu bar which are worth browsing.
Global Learning: http://globallearning.info/
This project provides opportunities to become involved in global learning projects focusing on the SDGs. Global Learning projects are typically launched twice a year and each project takes about 4 weeks. Projects involve students in doing the research, exploring, brainstorming and discussion. They share their findings via weekly videos or presentations.
SDG Lesson Plans for New Zealand Teachers
https://www.sdg.org.nz/resources/sdg-lesson-plans-for-nz-teachers
This publication is a product of sdg.org.nz, a Victoria University of Wellington School of Government initiative. The lesson plans within can be freely used and reproduced without permission from the authors.
SDG Academy Library – https://sdgacademylibrary.mediaspace.kaltura.com/
A collection of free, open educational resources from the world’s leading experts on sustainable development. There are searchable collections of resources for each of the SDGs, and a great collection of videos that are well worth browsing.
Resources for Teachers – http://uneducation.nz/resources/ accessed via the United Nations Education Portal for New Zealand. These resources have been carefully selected and curated to help learners and other educators in their endeavours to work with the SDGs. The site provides a range of filters to quickly locate and access the type of resource you’re looking for, specific to the age group you are working with.
World’s Largest Lesson – https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/ promotes use of the Sustainable Development Goals in learning so that children can contribute to a better future for all. This group produces creative tools for educators and action focussed learning experiences for children and young people that build skills and motivation to take action for the SDGs.
Climate Change Learning Resources – https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/campaign/2020-climate-campaign/ Loads of free resources to designed engage and inspire students aged 8-14 to become climate activists. This is part of the World’s Largest Lesson site – in 2021 they will be campaigning for holistic climate and environmental education to become mandatory in national curricula.
Microsoft’s SDG online course for educators: https://education.microsoft.com/en-us/course/72e17f8e/overview This short course is designed for educators and all those who would like to teach children and young people about the SDGs. It is intended to support the teaching of the World’s Largest Lesson and all other efforts to educate and engage children and young people so that they support the SDGs and want to turn their support into action. Those who complete this course will be awarded a badge and 500 points on Microsoft Educator Community.
Become a SDG ambassador: https://plan-international.org/publications/become-sustainable-development-goals-ambassador
This downloadable PDF provides pages of excellent project ideas, worksheets and research topics for each of the 17 SDGs that can readily be used in any classroom context. The document ends with a call to action, and a useful template for a declaration that could be used or adapted with learners.
SDGs Guide for teachers: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/the-sustainable-development-goals-a-guide-for-teachers-620842/
This downloadable PDF from Oxfam provides some excellent advice and guidance for teachers wanting to incorporate the SDGs into their teaching programmes. There are some excellent project ideas and case studies towards the end of the document that help bring to life how this might work in your classroom.
The planet and the 17 Goals: https://archive.unric.org/html/sdgs/GlobalGoalsComic_eng.pdf
An introduction to the 17 SDGs in comic form. Bound to appeal to younger and older readers alike. Each goal is introduced on a page, with a section titled ‘what can we do about it’ that provides practical things that could be done. An ideal starter for discussion and inquiry at primary or secondary school level.
Rights Respecting Schools Impact – The evidence: https://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/the-rrsa/impact-of-rrsa/
A rights-respecting school is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted. Young people and the school community learn about children’s rights by putting them into practice every day.
This excellent resource explains the theory of change that underpins this idea, and provides evidence of the impact of the programme over a three year period.
The RRS methodology is an excellent underpinning way of working with students as they tackle the SDGs.
Practical classroom resources for every level which support active Global Citizenship.
https://scotdec.org.uk/resources/
A suite of resources curated by Scotdec (Scottish Development Education Centre) whose vision is that young people in Scotland [and the world] are able and motivated to challenge global inequality – creating a fairer future for all. Key focus is on the development of citizenship – using the SDGs as a context for this.
Learn and Teach SDGs: https://changeforchildren.org/learn-teach/learn-and-teach-sdgs/
A really usefully curated set of resources from this Canada-based charity, working in cooperation with the indigenous people of developing countries. Their aim is to identify the root causes of poverty and, in the spirit of solidarity, assist in finding long-term solutions.
Besides this page specifically linking to resources for the SDGs, there are additional pages with links to resources and activities relating specifically to climate change, water and food security.
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