Since 2015, effectively all the countries of the world signed onto the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. The U.N. identified the 17 problems/issues that affect every human being on the planet at some level, as shown below:
At ETHS, we've been inspired by these in my classes, and understand that ANYONE can develop projects for many of the goals, and can make their own difference, regardless of how small it is, to the world at large. One problem, though, is that the vast majority of people have never heard of the SDGs, let alone try to work on any of them, including in ETHS. At a national level and in a country like the US, as administrations change or different political parties take and lose control of Congress, it is nearly impossible to get big things done or to sustain big projects or programs for more than a couple years. Similar lack of progress occurs at the state level, as governorships and state assembly control can change parties. This is unfortunate since the US has always been viewed as the global leader to get big things accomplished.
The timeline that was set for measurable progress for each goal is 2030. Because little is presently being done by the US on any of these goals, and with the US being the single biggest driver globally of what does or does not get done, it is likely that the actual results of the SDG program will all fall short, and in some areas this will be significantly short.
If nations fail at making a difference for humanity, then the people must rise up to challenges. It is easy to fall into the trap that an individual makes, effectively, no contribution if he or she turns off lights or spends one minute less each day when taking a shower. The power of individual action CAN happen, though, when lots of individuals take small actions. Between many individuals doing small actions over long periods of time, there suddenly are two multiplying factors at work collectively, and significant progress has a chance of being made!
If every student in ETHS, for example, used one less gallon of water each day by spending just half a minute less per shower, then that is 365 gallons saved per year. But if all 3500 students did this, suddenly it is approaching 1.3 million gallons of water saved per year. And the more family members and friends and neighbors one person convinces to shorten showers by 30 seconds, this one project is saving tens or hundreds of millions of gallons of water, at almost no cost to individual health and cleanliness! And that is the potential for just ONE high school! There are close to 24,000 high schools in America - and just American teens could be responsible for saving billions of gallons of water for almost no effort...just awareness and consistent follow-through to change a habit by a little bit.
THIS IS THE POWER OF MANY INDIVIDUALS DECIDING TO MAKE A SMALL CHANGE, WHICH COLLECTIVELY BECOMES A MUCH BIGGER DEAL!!
UN SDG Projects in Doc V's classes:
Over a few year period, all of Doc V's classes developed SDG projects of choice. These could be individual, or small group, and they could be local, regional, or even global in their scope, depending on what each student chose to do. In general, students had a blast with these, although the challenge was the amount of freedom they had - students are not used to having nearly free-reign on the topic, type of project, and scope of project! Here is a sampling of how many projects were done, and a touch of what some of the projects dealt with. Around 400 students did 200 projects, and learned about how even teenagers can take action on issues and problems of concern, and actually do something about it! This is why we include UN SDGs under the SOS umbrella!
Tower Gardens, Freerice, and Food Drives:
Falling under SDG #2, No Hunger, we have a few good options for students to be involved in.
The 'easiest' two options are food drives, which many schools do around the holidays, and the little known online game called Freerice. Freerice was created for the World Food Program, WFP, and is an educational game that, for every correct answer someone has, donates grains of rice to the most food needy people in the world. When people are displace due to war, or there are severe droughts and crop loss, or a country is simply full of poverty and near starving human beings, the WFP comes in to try and help feed as many as possible, for as long as possible. Give Freerice a try, and help provide some food while having fun and actually learning a bit! Talk with teachers and have your class challenge other classes to see which donates the most rice over a week's worth of time! It could be hundreds of thousands of grains in just a short time!
Our more intense hunger project is with tower gardens. Doc V was inspired by his friend, Stephen Ritz, who founded the Green Bronx Machine some years ago. Mr. Ritz has perfected using tower gardens in his elementary classrooms as the centerpiece of all academic work, while taking kids who are on free and reduced lunches and live in inner-city food deserts, and making them healthy and wanting to be in school. We now have some tower gardens and donate all fresh produce to Evanston Grows, including the Faith Temple Food Pantry during the late Fall through Winter months, when the outdoor farms are not producing. For instance, using 5.5 towers, we donated 809 bags of produce (166 pounds) from late September through mid-May, helping a couple dozen families each week.
Global Projects:
With connections with teachers in nearly 70 countries through Global Teacher Prize, as well as some of the most impressive students doing amazing work through Global Student Prize, we can take on global projects!! See Doc V if you have ideas or passion projects in mind.
Current and Developing Projects include:
SEE SAW: working with EducAid schools in Sierra Leone and other African nations, we provide legitimate STEM labs and activities for teachers to do with their students and colleagues, under the restriction of using only the most bare-basic materials since the schools don't have equipment like we're used to, and in many cases do not have electricity, so no Internet. Keep in mind, SEE SAW lessons can also be appropriate for US elementary schools, since they do not have stocked labs and very little equipment.
Kranti School: in India, our Chem/Phys Mentoring group is developing a collaborative relationship with a school that focuses on girls, as young as 10, who are coming out of the 'redlight district' in Mumbai, India - they were in the sex trade district, either with their mothers or forced into it from their families. We want to help in any way possible, to help these girls re-create their lives.
EMPATHY: currently paused, due to the death of a great man and friend, Andrews Nchessie in Malawi, Africa. We developed what became a national model where money we raised here, was used by schools to purchase their own land for farms. Other funds we raised were used for seed and fertilizer, and in some cases irrigation systems, in order for the crops to feed the children through the entire school year. With two dozen schools/villages doing this, ETHS helped feed some 8,000-10,000 kids each year. We hope to be able to re-start this if the appropriate connections are made.
Others, from past years, have included working with an Australian elementary school to have Chem/Phys students answer the science questions of the younger kids; working with a new school opening in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, to use SEE SAW activities to excite the kids; several students and Doc V sat on panels with a UK group developing one of the first set of recommendations for Ethical use of AI in education; some funds were raised to help girls in Sierra Leone purchase feminine hygiene products. Doc V is a Global Teacher Prize Top 50 Finalist (2015) and Ambassador, and is a judge for both the Global Teacher Prize and Global Student Prize, which is why we have access to so many friends in nearly 70 countries. See the list of countries and teachers here.
With today's technologies and access to information and resources, DO NOT LIMIT YOUR THINKING, DREAMS, PASSIONS, OR PROJECTS YOU TAKE ON!! AS A TEEN, YOU REALLY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON A MASSIVE SCALE!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?
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