Lessons Directly related to the Sustainable Development Goals

The World's Largest Lesson
A tool kit containing a starting place for introducing the SDGs to students

Lessons Organized by Content Area

Annenberg Learner
A general resource for lesson plans across the curriculum. Many lessons are related to sustainable development.

1. Enroll in the SDG Academy's free online course, The Age of Sustainable Development. Propose a course or elective to your Academic Dean or Department Chair. (Goals 1-17)
    

2. Lobby your school's CFO to establish policy that requires those personnel proposing an off campus trip (professional development, alumni event, development mission, &c.) to factor into that trip’s budget a line for carbon offset credits. You can refer to this list of international vendors to find the one that fits your school best. (Goals 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13)
    

3. If it matters, it’s measured. Establish a system that assesses and advertises the amount of unnecessary food waste produced by every meal enjoyed in your cafeteria or dining hall. (Goals 1, 2, 10, 12)

Before the Flood

A discussion about the dangers of climate change and possible solutions. Hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio
 

Poverty inc.

An investigation of the impact of foreign aid—helpful and harmful
 

Sharkwater

A film concerned with the misunderstanding of the nature of sharks, and subsequent destruction of their populations world wide.
 

TED Talk:

Richard Wilkinson, “How Economic Inequality Harms Societies”
 

Ted Talk:

Gary Haugen, “The Hidden Reasons for Poverty the World Needs to Address Now”

1. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindedness
   An assertion that racial caste in America has not been abolished, only reassembled by the U.S. criminal justice system.
    
2. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
   In 1962 this book helped usher in the environmental movement, and forced major policy change in the US and internationally.
   Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
    
3. Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
   Reflections on poverty and economic exploitation, as well as proposed solutions, examined through the chronicles of eight struggling Milwaukee families.
    
4. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: Encyclical on Climate ChangeInequality -- On Care for Our Common Home
   The Pope aims this letter beyond a Catholic audience and articulates a causal connection between climate change and the unequal distribution of wealth.
    
5. Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers
   The histories and ideologies of some of he world’s greatest economic minds spanning from WWII to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.
    
6. Jay Hossler, Clan Apis
   A graphic novel chronicling the life and times of a honeybee.
    
7. Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
   An indictment of free-market ideology, and call for a new global economy and set of political principles and systems.

8. Jean-Francios Rischard, High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 years to Solve Them
   More than a decade ahead of the UN’s establishment of the Global Goals, this work presents striking overlap with the SDGs, as well as propositions for change.

9. Jeffery Sachs, The Age of Sustainable Development
   The seminal work by the thought-leader behind the Global Goals.

10. Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence, and Morality (essay)
    An ethical heuristic concerned with Western treatment of charity and moral obligation