A couple of weeks ago, our group presented on Maker Ed. In preparation for that presentation, I decided to “interview” a friend of mine who has been a big Maker Ed advocate for many years. We chatted a bit about how Maker Ed didn’t necessarily require a large investment of money, how teachers could find time to integrate Maker Ed into their practice, and other common Maker Ed topics. He then shared some photos of what the children in his class had done, and mentioned the phrase “Global Competencies” and “UN Sustainable Goals”. Those two phrases immediately caught my attention. He explained that when he created STEM challenges in his Maker Ed centre, he always tried to incorporate both those concepts in his curriculum. “21st Century Skills?” I asked. “Well, the Global Competencies are similar” he answered, “but the UN Sustainable Goals go deeper. It makes our making meaningful”. As he spoke, I quickly googled “Global Competencies” and “UN Sustainable Goals” and I found these images:
Global Competencies image retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/tdsb.on.ca/globalcompetencies/home?authuser=0
UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development image retrieved from: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
According to the Council of Ministers of Education (n.d.), Global competencies are encompassing “sets of attitudes, skills, and knowledge that can be interdependent, interdisciplinary, and leveraged in a variety of situations both locally and globally.” The Council of Ministers of Education (n.d.), endorse these specific six Canadian global competencies:
*Critical thinking and problem solving
*Innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship
*Learning to learn/self-awareness and self-direction
*Collaboration
*Communication
*Global citizenship and sustainability
I felt I was familiar and was already incorporating these competencies into my curriculum. They felt very similar to the competencies discussed with 21st Century Skills (which have been previously discussed in this blog).
However, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) were a different story. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that these goals had never purposefully made an appearance in any of my lesson plans. What are the UN sustainable Development Goals? According to the UN’s "Sustainable Development Goals," (2018) webpage, in 2015 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for sustainable development to help end extreme poverty, inequalities, and climate change by 2030. They are 17 goals aimed at achieving a better and more sustainable future for all of us. They include global challenges we are currently facing such as poverty, inequality, climate change, peace, and justice. Considering how connected our world is today, it only makes sense that we all need to work together to help solve these challenges. What better platform, or place to begin with than with our students who are our future. These UN SDGs lay a framework to help us get there.
As I researched more into the UN SDG, I discovered various resources that provided information on how to incorporate these goals into all aspects of our curriculum, whether it be in a Maker Space, STEM or other technology integration.
If you are interested in finding out more about the UN SDGs, I encourage you to visit these websites:
Or follow this hashtag on Twitter: #TeachSDGs
References:
About the sustainable development goals. (2018, May 17). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cmec.ca/682/Global_Competencies.html
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