Poverty

To have the students realize the reality of poverty around the world and to found out ways to help.

This game is used to introduce students to the concepts behind Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." Students will be randomly assigned to different social classes; then they will learn what it was like for poor Irish tenants who paid much of their wages to absentee landlords. This resource is part of the Satire Unit collection.

This February workshop featured Paul Collier, esteemed Oxford University economist, who specializes in the political economy of democracy, economic growth in Africa, aid, globalization, poverty, and the economics of civil war. Specifically, Collier researches the causes and consequences of civil war, the effects of aid, and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies. He is the author of The Bottom Billion, winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award and 2008 Lionel Gelber Prize. His most recent book is Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places. This 50-page resource booklet provides teachers with articles and books by Paul Collier. It also includes extensive up-to-date resources and lesson plans on "democracy in difficult places;" international aid; women, education, and development; human rights, human trafficking; and global/public health.

After remediation week, there were still quite a few students who hadn't met the DBQ requirements. So Ben did a one-week enrichment unit on international development with the finished students, while the others completed their requirements. This lesson compares developed and developing nations and asks why we should care about international development. This resource is part of Unit 9: Development and the Social Studies 7 course.

In this lesson students will learn the fundamental concepts of economic development. Students will learn about the role of globalization in developing societies, different theories of why some countries are more developed than others and will be able to identify the key institutions and players in the field of international development. Students will research, write, present and evaluate grant proposals to fund a development project that encompasses a specific strategy of development (Poverty Reduction, Trade-Not-Aid, Good Governance, or Sustainable Development).

Students will: learn about slum conditions around the world research the UN's Millennium Development Goals and assess how countries are accomplishing these goals compare slum conditions around the world compare the depiction of slum life in movies to reality

This lesson will introduce students to poverty, food insecurity, and small-scale vs. large-scale agriculture; specifically to sub-Saharan Africa. Students will be required to present a solution to the increasing food insecurity and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

www.OneHen.org is a microfinance website for kids, with fun games and a virtual market, as well as lesson plans for teachers and librarians. The website is based on a children's book about a real boy in Africa who gets a loan to buy a hen, which over time turns into a thriving business - all because of a small loan to buy one brown hen. On the website kids can read the story, and read and see pictures and videos of real microentrepreneurs around the world in countries like Ghana, Brazil, Mexico and even immigrants in the U.S., and play games such as memory. Kids can donate "beads" won from the games to actual microentrepreneurs in developing countries through the virtual market, and as kids contribute they will see virtual businesses grow before their eyes. It's a beautifully designed website that aims to inspire good in kids while providing entertainment, and has great materials for teachers to teach their kids about topics ranging from world geography to community service to African culture to math to economics to business to global citizenship.