The International Relations Council is pleased to offer supplemental global education resources covering a variety of currently taught international topics for the use of teachers and students.
It is important to keep in mind that the Global Education Resources should serve as a starting point for your global education. This is not an all-encompassing list of activities; instead, it provides you and other students with enough information and resource to begin learning about the world. As an apolitical, nonpartisan organization, the International Relations Council does not endorse any of the organizations, associations, universities, bodies, or websites cited in this guide.
This page contains resources for students in grades 9-12. Simply click the resource title to be linked to the source. If there’s a resource you don’t see here, or if you have additional resources you would like to share or request, please click here.
Key to Resource Standards
Standard 1: Choices and Consequences | Standard 2: Rights and Responsibilities
Standard 3: Culture, Values, & Diversity | Standard 4: Change and Continuity
Standard 5: Dynamic Relationships
Standard 1: Choices and Consequences
A Vanishing Island | Global Oneness Project: In this lesson, students watch a film about a tiny island community off the Louisiana coast and examine how coastal areas are impacted by the effects of climate change
Objectives: Students will participate in classroom discussions and explore the themes of cultural displacement and the effects of environmental change. Reflective writing prompts are also included for students to demonstrate their understanding of the story.
Global Economics: Big Men Versus Big Oil: In this lesson, students will practice writing, listening, discussion and research skills as they compare and contrast global economic models of oil exchange and examine the impacts of these models on local communities
Objectives: Examine some of the major players in the global oil market, experience the law as open to interpretation rather than fixed, analyze the capitalist oil industry model of the United States, and compare and contrast government-owned and privately-owned oil production models.
The Costs of War: In this lesson, students will explore the human, economic, social, and political costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Objectives: understand the scope of the cost, identify who bears the cost and implications for the future – also fulfils standard 5.
A Refugee’s Story | Global Oneness Project: Students watch a 19-minute documentary that tells the story of Mohammed Alsaleh, a young Syrian refugee granted asylum in Canada in 2014, who is now counseling newly arrived refugees
Objectives: In this lesson, students explore through classroom discussions the themes of cultural displacement, human rights, and resilience. Reflective writing prompts are also included for students to demonstrate their understanding of the story – also fulfils standard 1.
Global Issues: Students will engage in research projects designed to develop a deeper understanding about a particular global issue, such as human rights. Through their research, intended to make them think critically about their issue, students will be guided through a series of questions, explored in small groups, and optionally expressed in blog entries
Objectives: This lesson can be adapted to fit into many different courses and units and to meet curriculum objectives. For example, if the course is Geography and there is a focus on inquiry in the curriculum, then more emphasis can be placed on the research component of this lesson – also fulfils standard 1 & 5.
Standard 2: Rights and Responsibilities
Standard 3: Culture, Values, and Diversity
Global Women and Poverty: A lesson that exposes students to how, in developing countries like Senegal and Thailand, women are affected by the hardships of living in poverty
Objectives: Students will compare and contrast the economic prosperity of developed and developing countries, and will understand how poverty affects gender inequality. Students will be able to think critically and synthesize information, thoughts and opinions in devising an action plan for social and economic change.
Deconstructing Consumerism | Global Oneness Project: In this lesson, students watch a 25 minute film about the environmental, economic, and social impacts of global consumerism and examine the effects on the global economy
Objectives: Make use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understandings of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. Use economic indicators to analyze the current and future state of the economy. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity – also fulfils standard 4.
The Last Generation: Climate Change and the Marshall Islands: This lesson gives teachers the option of presenting a multidisciplinary or integrated lesson that allows students to examine the impact of climate change as viewed through three children living in the Marshall Islands, using interactive documentary, The Last Generation, co-produced by The GroundTruth Project and Frontline
Objectives: Students form jigsaw groups to engage with one of three story strands, taking advantage of the unique interactive nature of the documentary presentation. Members from each group will contribute what they’ve learned through discussion in a culminating activity that covers science, history, and civics – also fulfils standard 1.
People on the Move: Two activities designed to help students understand how the movement of people introduces changes in terms of the social, economic, environmental, and political makeup of states and regions
Objectives: Describe patterns of internal migration in the United States (past and present), evaluate implications of internal migration, examine population movement at the state and local levels – also fulfils standard 1 & 5.
Standard 4: Change and Continuity
Standard 5: Dynamic Relationships
U.S. China Trade Simulation This simulation was developed with support from the KU Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and as part of the resources designed within the KU Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS). It is designed as a scaffolded classroom assignment where the students can learn about what’s going on in the Trade War and also reflect on theoretical concepts about trade and investment politics. It is both a teaching tool and also a lab experiment to capture how ideological divides play out in domestic politics and international bargaining in the US-China trade war. The simulation has been successfully implemented at KU, UCSD, Princeton, Arkansas, and UBC.
Treaty of Versailles Simulation: Students will engage in a simulation in which they each take part as a major participant in the Treaty of Versailles. They will understand the desires of each country going into negotiations and how the treaty actually ended up (can be adapted for more recent treaties)
Objectives: Evaluate the choices each side made and the consequences, understand the interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions – also fulfil standard 1.
The Debate Over Globalization: Students will research, analyze, and debate the pros and cons of globalization
Objectives: Define and conduct research about globalization, identify pros and cons, choose and support one side of the debate – also fulfil standard 1.
Discover Diplomacy: Diplomatic Simulations in the Classroom: Nine diplomacy simulations where students negotiate global challenges ranging from migration to wildlife trafficking
Objectives: Researching and defining a position on a foreign policy issue and adjusting this position as the negotiation evolves, prioritizing goals and objectives, defining responsibilities within the group, creatively negotiating, compromising, and resolving conflict, active listening, team, and alliance-building, weighing different perspectives and points-of-view, articulating a position, and persuading others, investigating worldwide issues, appreciating different perspectives on those issues, finding opportunities to improve situations, and taking practical action – also fulfils standards 1, 2, 3, & 4.