Global Issues

Lesson objective:

To offer a visual symbol of the interlocking nature of ten global issues: The Arms Race, Environmental Pollution, Unemployment, 'Third World' Underdevelopment, Terrorism, Human Rights, Nationalism, Natural Resource Depletion, Malnutrition, and Urbanization.

Grade level and subject area:

7-12/ Science, English, or Social Studies

Activities and strategies:

Introduce the global issues through a general discussion or over several class periods. On the day of the activity, you will need at least three people per issue, so the number of issues may vary depending on class size. Add issues if needed.

Resources and materials:

  1. Label each of the issues on a sheet of "flip-chart" paper and tape them around the room.
  2. Get students into groups of three according to the topic they are interested in. Each group should have an identifying label.
  3. Groups first brainstorm the issues surrounding their topic on scrap paper.
  4. Each group member is assigned one of three roles: note-taker, static negotiator or mobile negotiator
  5. Static negotiators from each group take up position in a circle in the center of the room. Each one ties the end of a ball of yarn around their waist and holds the other end.
  6. Mobile negotiators from each group seek out other mobile negotiators around the circle, one by one. The goal is to decide if there is a relationship between their two issues. If they agree such a connection exists, they report their supporting reasons to their respective note-taker and static negotiator.
  7. The note-taker records the thinking behind each agreement on the "flip-chart" paper.
  8. The static negotiator creates a symbol of the agreed upon interrelationship between the two issues by looping their ball of yarn around the waist of the static negotiator from the other issue. The other static negotiator does the same so each issue is connected by each other's yarn.
  9. The mobile negotiators repeat this process with other issues until time runs out. With each connection made, the note-takers record it and the static negotiators wrap their yarn around each other.
  10. As mobile negotiators from each issue interact and make agreements, a spider's web of connections between the 10 issues will be produced.

Jim Petrie, Centre for Global Education, P.O. Box 752, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, E3B 5R6.

This document was last updated 6/29/97 by Chandra Hawley.
Copyright1996 Indiana University - Center for Adolescent Studies, all rights reserved.
Kris Bosworth ring ideas are from teachers who are exploring the cutting edge of their profession. Their students are learning in innovative ways and responding positively. One student remarked, "This has been unlike any other learning experience." This issue shows a few of the many possibilities to break down the walls of classrooms.

This document was last updated 6/24/97 by Chandra Hawley.
Copyright1996 Indiana University - Center for Adolescent Studies, all rights reserved.
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