For the past year, I’ve been working on the IGlobal team to develop the extracurricular club for middle grades students. The preliminary stage began with brainstorming and planning how we could increase global competency within students around the world. As time went on, our team continued thinking of best ways to engage students with this material and began creating lesson plans to meet our expectations. The first lesson I created, with the help of my fellow undergraduates, was our “Food Unit”. This unit ultimately ties to the second Sustainable Development Goal: Zero Hunger. Our goal when creating this unit was to start the discussion with students about the different foods they typically eat in their country. My favorite activity we developed for this unit allows each chapter group to pick one of their favorite or most popular foods in their country and share the recipe with us. From there, we created a bank system where students can use the currency they obtain from participating in the program to purchase a recipe book, which is a collection of each recipe from every chapter group participating. I’m personally excited to see all the various types of foods that students consider to be their favorite and I would love to try making them!
Beyond just talking about each chapter group’s favorite food, we also include information and activities that convey information about world hunger. With this, it is our hope that the students understand why the issue of hunger is so important and is a crucial one to address. We also provide ways they can help end world hunger. Although the students are still young, we want to highlight that even the small changes they make can be a driving impetus in the world.
With the new school year underway, and the addition of many middle school students to our program, I am so excited to launch IGlobal again this fall. It will be my first time as a chapter leader and I could not be more enthusiastic to start working with the students. I am really looking forward to learning from each student and know that this experience will provide insight on how to include each student in my classroom, which is something I find extremely crucial in education. Moreover, I cannot wait to see what the students think about the Sustainable Development Goals and hear their ideas on how they can make the world a better place.
I am so grateful for the experience IGlobal has provided me so far. From the logistics of lesson planning to being able to actually teach the lessons this fall, I know that this program is providing me invaluable tools that will aid me when I actually have my own classroom in just a few years! Even after a year, I feel honored to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful team on this global endeavor.
Cara is a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a Middle Grades Math & Science Education major. After graduating in the spring of 2024, her plans are to return to the Chicago suburbs, where she grew up, and become a middle school teacher. She hopes to attend a master’s program shortly after graduating.
