42 Days ‘Til the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day: Sustainable Goal Lesson Ideas for Your Students

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals serve as an important guide to creating a sustainable future, but who will help us achieve a healthier planet? Our young and bright students that will grow up one day and have the choice to make a positive impact. Teaching sustainability to your students will help guide them to make better, environmentally friendly decisions in the future. Here are some quick ways you can use the SDGs in your classroom.

1. Create PSAs

Letting your students create a public service announcement opens the doors to lots of creativity. They could create posters and decorate them with reused craft items in the classroom. You can split them into teams to create video commercials. Students can also make skits to help explain the problem and offer a solution.

2. Persuasive Speeches

This is an idea we got from a 6th grade social studies teacher, Kara Windish, who attends our workshops and is always teaching her students about sustainability. Have students choose a Sustainable Development Goal that is most important to them. Then, each student will create a 1-minute persuasive speech discussing the issue, how it's a problem, and why people should work to solve it or offer solutions.

3. Flash Card Competition

Get your students to know all about the SDGs by making a flashcard competition. Print out pictures of the SDGs. Hold one up and see who raises their hand first to answer what that SDG means. Make sure to offer some sort of prize to reward students with the highest scores. This "drilling" type of activity will help students remember them easily. You could also create a Kahoot with the SDGs. This is similar to using flashcards and students love this game.

4. SDG to Action

This is an idea for a more long-term project. Choose an SDG that relates most to your lesson or have your students choose their own. Let them research the SDG and create an action plan of how they will solve the problem. Then, they can create a presentation of their sustainable action plans. You could even have your students go out and try to help solve these issues as a community service project. They can clean beaches to help SDG #14 Life Below Water. They can plant flowers and trees to encourage SDG #15 Life on Land. Check out the Good Life Goals, which provide more ideas for bringing the 17 SDGs to action!