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Superheroes Fighting for Sustainability

Superheroes Fighting for Sustainability

Clean water, quality education, life on land or below water, and good health were just a few of the sustainable goals students were learning about and trying to improve by designing sustainability superheroes. 

sustainability poster

“This activity is about learning how to become global citizens,” said Mrs. Tara Garrett.

Social Studies students in sixth grade studied the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to learn about the urgent ways developing and developed nations need to respond to global needs to build a stronger, more sustainable world. The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals identify many topics that need immediate action, ranging from clean energy and climate change to infrastructure and sustainable building practices.

“We’re writing down a bunch of these goals for our world,” Lucas Devito said. “We try and make them a reality.”

Students started their lesson by investigating posters of the goals displayed throughout the hallway at Somers Middle School. Each poster included a topic and the issues within that topic that need to be improved. Once students had a chance to explore each poster, they chose the one they found the most interesting to research further.

“I’m working on a superhero that’s based on goal number three—health and well-being,” said Milania Chiazzese. “My superhero is going to cure people and help people who struggle with health.”

sustainability expectations poster

After they completed their research, students used what they’d learned to fill out a “superhero planning page.” The planning page helped them answer important questions about their superhero designs, such as what powers they have, how they use those powers, where they are from, and what tools they need to achieve their goal.

“I’m doing goal five which is gender equality. I picked that because women don’t have the same rights as men,” said Natalia Steiner. “My superhero has a cape. When the cape is moving, it will give women the same amount of money as men. The necklace will give girls more confidence, because girls get treated poorly and bullied. And she has shoes, so when my superhero walks, she will give girls an education, because a lot of girls still don’t get to go to school.”

Using the questions they answered on their planning sheets, students sketched a superhero who would help them fix the problems highlighted in the U.N. Sustainable Goal they chose to research. The superheroes were drawn on large poster boards with pencils and markers. Ten index cards were added around superheroes, giving information about their goals, strategies, and tools.

Kids at table

“The goal is number 14—life below water,” Mia Klein said. “She tries to help all the animals underwater. She makes waste in the ocean disappear. She has a watch that notifies her if the ecosystem is in danger. I love the ocean. I learned that people overfish and that is not good.”

“This project gets the students to be risk-takers as they create and design their superhero,” said Mrs. Jacqueline Dolan as she spoke about the International Baccalaureate learning profile attributes required in the lesson. The students also practiced being “principled” as they researched their U.N. Sustainable Goals and completed their projects.

  • District
  • Middle School

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