Teach
International Learning Resources
There are a lot of great resources about Global Education. Among the many useful ones, these sites should give a broad overview of what is meant by global education, how to recognize competency in the area, and how you may incorporate it into your classroom.
Asia Society has a Center for Global Education with information on the competencies. It begins with discussing the Four Domains of Global Competence where students should be able to: Investigate their world; Recognize perspectives, Communicate Ideas; and Take Action.
The United Nations has great resources about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that are part of Global Education. Some schools are requiring these in various unit plans as districts across the US and around the world recognize that we are all members of the global society. The UN has several different visual ways they explain and display the goals that may be useful for classrooms and schools.
UNESCO has resources explaining and detailing how they are addressing Sustainable Development Goal #4 about Education. The site details various ways they are working as well as some of the major events related to their goals happening currently around the world.
Data from OECD on the PISA assessment (well-known international science and math exam) that shows that students need more exposure to environmental issues. If you need some data to support Global Education in science, this resources may help.
Creative Minds, Creative Schools is another OECD publication regarding the data from PISA discussing the need for students to have original thoughts and ideas. It sounds like a great opportunity for Global Education.
"Glocal" Resources in Northern VA
Every student in Virginia is expected to have a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE). As a result, this area is rich with organizations and agencies sharing insights and ideas on how to provide those opportunities. Many of these ideas could easily be connected to "Glocal" learning opportunities.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation offers a teacher guide with action projects students can take in their neighborhoods. It is an excellent place to start as teachers brainstorm connections for projects. In addition to the guide, they have many different educational programs throughout the year for teachers and students.
Stream Corridor Restoration out of Prince William County provides information on the how and why stream corridors need to be restored. It could be used as a way to get students interested in developing their own restoration project.
BayBackPack is an organization that is also concerned about our watershed and MWEE. They have clearly laid out steps they suggest teachers follow to help students do action projects and they have another teacher guide (and student guide) in partnership with NOAA. is an organization that is also concerned about our watershed and MWEE. They have clearly laid out steps they suggest teachers follow to help students do action projects and they have another teacher guide (and student guide) in partnership with NOAA
Water treatment plants can be a great way to examine how students can make a difference in conservation and pollution. Fairfax county offers tours that could be used to spark project ideas for the students. Check with your city’s water and/or sewage treatment plant to see if they offer educational tours.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has been very supportive of science teachers in the commonwealth. They often have presenters at the Virginia Association of Science Teachers conferences where they help teachers to understand wildlife management, especially of the white-tailed deer. Depending on where students live in Virginia, information from this resource could spark Glocal projects.
National Resources
EarthForce has a great connection to the big ideas of Global Education. Students are led through designing their own action project and then implementing it. Although science teachers are the main focus, it can easily be used in many other subject areas. Here is their model.
Although Citizenship Science might not have all the components that one looks for in Global Education, it can be a terrific place to start. Here are a few links with large scale citizenship projects:
NASA has a site that can help connect students in different areas of the world into large-scale citizen science projects. The local data connects to a larger group of data that helps everyone.
More citizen science opportunities from National Geographic. Projects range in topics from animals to stars.
Earth science and astronomy courses might be interested in Globe At Night to track the amount of light pollution in the local area. This could be coupled with examining how some Colorado towns were able to change the amount of their light pollution and become official "Dark Sky" areas.
Society For Science has links to several large scale citizen science that may also intrigued classrooms and/or individual students with a specific area.
Sample Unit
Here is a sample unit with some Global Education threads interwoven. It is an interdisciplinary high school unit for English and astronomy.