“Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.” – Rita Pierson
Young people worldwide are already leading movements and causes to end hunger, find solutions for climate change, and tackle other world problems. They are using social media and technology to spread the word and gather momentum. However, these movements are mostly outside of school. To inspire students to be the next world changers means we need to allow them at least one project or opportunity to change the world in our classes. This could be a global collaboration project, tackling one of the global goals, joining a challenge or contest, or a problem-based project. This way students will be given the opportunity to tackle world issues with their ideas and innovation and their teachers can facilitate that journey. This was the topic of my recent 10 minute keynote for the ELT Day for Puerto Rico conference, entitled, How to Inspire the Next World Changers. Find the slides and resources below. Don’t forget to donate here to help those who recently lost their homes in Puerto Rico.
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Tips and Resources!
- Changing the world isn’t easy! How do we equip students for the journey?
- Champion student ideas
- Involve students in the process of innovation
- Give them opportunities to solve problems they care about
- Spend time investigating problems
- Get them brainstorming with design challenges
- Teach resilience
- Connect them with role models, guest experts and mentors
- Include student voice and choice
- Facilitate the documentation of ideas and innovations (digital portfolios, research logs and journaling)
- Participate in global collaboration projects like the Global Goals!
- Where to find activities, projects and lessons:
- The Science Demo Guy’s website has free STEM and Engineering Design Process posters and experiments to download and print.
- NASA has amazing resources for educators, including free projects, lesson plans, videos, and interactives! Students can join the competitions for free when you set up a free Future Engineers account for them.
- Sign up for a free Mystery Science membership and receive access to tons of awesome standard aligned lesson plans and projects.
- Find STEM resources and projects with Google templates free to edit and use from the school I teach at here.
- Click here to make a copy of the Research Choice Menu template I created with recommended research websites for K-12. Edit as you like and discover kid-friendly search engines in my post, Top Research Websites, Search Engines, and a Research Choice Menu for K-12 Students.
- Citizen science is defined by Oxford Dictionary as scientific work undertaken by members of the general public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions.
- Find projects open to students and the public at SciStarter.com and Zooniverse.org.
Social Emotional Learning
- Find the Growth Mindset Self-Talk for students, Permissions, and other social emotional learning visual posters to print and use for free here!
- Download and print the free Self-regulation Coping Strategies For Students To Use At School poster!
- Emoji Bingo for students to identify and feel okay about their feelings!
- Z00 Academy is a free social emotional learning game for K-4.
- Stop, Breathe, Think has hundreds of lesson ideas and activities for students.
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