Global Education

Teacher resources to encourage a global
perspective across the curriculum

Filter by:

Issue
Country
Year level
Learning area

Teaching activities

Access to safe water and sanitation

In Lombok, Indonesia, a woman pours clean water from the central source into her covered storage container.
Students deepen their understanding of the need and right of all people in the world to have access to safe water and adequate sanitation for health and wellbeing. They investigate projects and initiatives to improve access to water and sanitation for communities in need and explore the importance of community involvement in helping to achieve lasting change.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Water and sanitation
Country: Vietnam, Bangladesh, Niger

Basic needs and children's rights

Boys walking on stilts in Solomon Islands.
Students explore their own needs and the needs of others, and reflect on what and who helps them to lead safe and comfortable lives. They develop awareness of their rights and the access to rights that children in other countries have.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Human rights

Delivering water

In a health clinic in Vietnam, water is pumped into a storage tank and distributed by pipes using the water pressure.
Students calculate their own water use and the water use, distances and surface areas involved in accessing water and volumes of various water storage containers for people in developing countries.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Water and sanitation

Disaster preparedness

In 2005 a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck northern Pakistan killing nearly 75,000 people and destroying homes, schools and hospitals.
Students investigate different kinds of disasters to develop an understanding of their causes, effects, and the types of assistance people and communities need to recover. They also explore how disaster preparedness can help to reduce the impact of disasters and build hope and resilience for the future.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Disasters
Country: Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Tuvalu

Disasters: Consequences and responses

Most buildings were destroyed in the 2007 earthquake on the Mentawai Islands, but emergency preparation meant everyone was evacuated safely.
People's lives can be affected by natural hazards at any time. Students examine characteristics of hazards, disasters and the emergency responses. They learn how a hazard becomes a disaster and how disaster preparedness can reduce the impact of the hazard.
Read more
Year level: 7-8
Issue: Disasters
Country: Australia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Tuvalu

Food for the world

Newly planted paddy rice seedlings in a field near Sekong, Laos.
Students investigate the types and amounts of foods eaten around the world, and the environmental, economic, political and cultural factors that affect access to food. They develop an understanding of why some people in the world have more than enough to eat, while others struggle to have the basics for survival, and explore ways people could work together to achieve food security for all.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Food security, Cultural diversity
Country: Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Laos, Vietnam

Genetic diversity and agriculture

A hand holding a bunch of carrots by their green tops.
Students examine how communities manage genetic diversity in food crops to ensure food security. They plan an investigation to compare the choice to grow only one variety with the choice to grow a genetically diverse set of crops.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Food security
Country: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka

Heritage

A family gets together to celebrate their grandmother’s 80th birthday in Pune, India.
Students investigate family, community, national and international celebrations and special places to develop understanding about the importance of heritage.
Read more
Year level: 3-4
Issue: Cultural diversity
Country: Australia

HIV/AIDS: Who's at risk?

A rugby sports carnival in South Africa builds skills and knowledge of the importance of education and HIV prevention for reducing poverty.
Students investigate the global distribution of HIV/AIDS. They analyse its association with other factors such as income and the status of women, and discriminate between the purposes and value of different types of maps.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Health

Inclusion and opportunity

New teaching methods and smaller classes, like this one in Pakistan, help children learn.
Students learn about the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They investigate the impact of unequal treatment or discrimination and examine ways of ensuring that everyone’s rights are equally valued and protected.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Human rights, Education
Country: Pakistan, Mozambique

Landmines

Learning about the types of landmines and unexploded ordnance is important to prevent injury and death in Cambodia.
Students investigate the use of landmines and other explosive remnants of war and their impact on people’s lives and human rights. They learn about the international campaign to ban landmines, ways of helping people injured by mines to rebuild their lives, and how the work of individuals, communities and projects at a global level can all make a difference.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Peace building
Country: Cambodia

Learning about cooperatives

In Lombok, Indonesia, cooperatives help peanut farmers pool their resources to expand access to markets, improve productivity and reduce poverty.
Students explore the value of cooperatives as a means of sharing knowledge, skills and resources to achieve benefits for all.
Read more
Year level: Upper Primary

Malaria - preventable and treatable?

The Malaria Survey team checks houses for mosquito nets in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
Students demonstrate knowledge of the symptoms, treatment and preventative measures associated with malaria; analyse data to identify and explain trends, patterns, anomalies and generalisations; and evaluate the effectiveness of programs designed to diminish the spread and impact of malaria in specific communities.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Health
Country: Solomon Islands

Measuring Millennium Development Goals progress

Millennium Development Goals icons for all eight goals
Students use real world data from the Millennium Development Goals targets and indicators to calculate fractions, decimals, percentages and ratios to determine progress.
Read more
Year level: 7-8
Issue: Education, Food security, Health, Poverty reduction, Water and sanitation

Microfinance

Students use mathematical skills to develop understanding of the poverty cycle and critically evaluate how borrowing to run a small business, microfinance, works.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Poverty reduction
Country: Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Solomon Islands

My place, your place

Poor people fear being forced to leave their homes, built along Bassac River in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Students explore why it is important to have a home, and reflect on what is essential for adequate housing. They investigate different styles of housing around the world and develop an awareness of environmental, cultural and economic factors that influence the kinds of homes people have.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Poverty reduction, Cultural diversity

Optics and eyes

An illustration showing how the camera obscura allows light though a pinhole to projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box.
Students build a pinhole camera and examine the structure of the human eye. They investigate and compare how the eyes function, and learn how the Muslim scientist Ibn al-Haytham first connected pinhole cameras and the operation of eyes in the 10th century.
Read more
Year level: 7-8
Issue: Cultural diversity

Our many identities

Annaprashan or First Rice, is a Hindu ceremony marking a baby’s first meal in which family members feed the baby rice.
Students explore their own identity through examining their arrival, multiple identities and connections to place. They develop a positive sense of self and recognise commonalities and differences with others, cultivating respect. They examine contributions people make to community and consider their own actions.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Cultural diversity, Health
Country: Australia, Timor-Leste, India, Laos, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

Pacific Islanders in Australia

Cartoon supporting he Pacific Island Labourers Bill, 1901, showing the Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, cleaning a black boy.
Students explore 150 years of connections between Australians and people of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. They examine attitudes that led to the bringing of Pacific Islander labourers to Australia, their treatment and current contributions to Australian society and economy
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Cultural diversity, Globalisation
Country: Australia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu

Peace building

Students in Sierra Leone are happier at school and at home after learning peaceful strategies to deal with conflict.
Students investigate reasons for conflict at a personal level and more broadly, and explore values, attitudes and actions that can help to promote lasting peace. They deepen their understanding by learning about a peace education project in Sierra Leone, which highlights the key role young people can play in helping communities to recover after war.
Read more
Year level: 3-4
Issue: Peace building
Country: Sierra Leone

People and the environment

Women in Rajasthan, India, in saris spend time searching for, collecting and carrying firewood before they can cook food.
Students investigate how people use and affect the environment. They develop key understandings about our dependence on the environment, including the use of natural resources for energy, and why it is important to protect and preserve the variety of life on Earth.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Environment

Personal peace

Grade 1 students in Sierra Leone singing ‘This is the way we reconcile’ from the Peace Education Kit.
Students use imagination and the senses to explore and express what makes them feel peaceful. They build on this knowledge of personal peace to explore factors that promote feelings of security and safety, and to deepen their understanding of the importance of peace in their own lives and for children who live in areas of conflict around the world.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Peace building

Poster art

A poster promotes covering bins to control mosquitoes and prevent the spread of dengue fever in the Philippines.
Students identify key elements of the genre of poster art and demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between historical and cultural periods and the artworks studied. They compare and contrast the ways in which ideas and art-making processes are used to communicate meaning in selected artworks.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Health, Cultural diversity
Country: Solomon Islands

Poverty and urbanisation

Slum housing is built along the polluted river, while modern housing is further away in Mumbai, India.
With high birth rates and rural exodus, cities are rapidly expanding with over half the world’s people now living there. Students explore the patterns of urbanisation throughout the world and analyse issues that impact on children’s lives in urban settings.
Read more
Year level: 7-8
Issue: Poverty reduction
Country: India, Philippines

Probability and pancakes

A woman bakes flat bread on a fuel efficient stove in Tilonia in north-east India.
Students read Mama Panya's Pancakes to gain insights into other ways of life and explore probability, fractions and measurement.
Read more
Year level: 3-4
Issue: Cultural diversity, Food security, Poverty reduction

Refugees

To minimise environmental impact, Myanmar refugees construct and repair their houses with materials provided by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium.
Students develop an understanding of situations which cause people to flee their homes, the rights of the people that are forced to flee, and the processes that protect and support these people.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Refugees
Country: Myanmar, Thailand

Respecting and protecting human rights

Somali children attend an outdoor classroom at the Friends Primary School in Ifo Refugee Camp, Dadaab, Kenya.
Students explore children’s rights based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They develop a broader understanding of human rights and investigate how, by respecting and protecting human rights, they can make the world a fairer and safer place for all.
Read more
Year level: 3-4
Issue: Human rights

Staying healthy

Regular blood tests provide a survey of the number of people who have the malaria parasite in their blood system, in Solomon Islands.
Students explore factors that affect people's health in different parts of the world. They learn about the importance of access to adequate healthcare and education, clean water and sanitation to reduce the impact of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases. They investigate projects that have improved people's health.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Health, Water and sanitation

Sustainable energy sources

Two large circular solar cookers catch the sun outside a large building in snowy mountainous area.
Students investigate the energy sources that people use to meet their daily needs, with a particular focus on ways of generating electricity. They develop key understandings about the environmental impact of different energy sources (non-renewable or renewable) and opportunities for decisions and actions that can make a difference for a sustainable future.
Read more
Year level: 5-6
Issue: Environment

The global car industry

Henry Ford introduced the assembly line that allowed for mass production leading to cars becoming more affordable.
Students explore interdependence and globalisation through examining the car manufacturing industry. They develop an awareness of the role of political forces and economic development and its effect on living standards and the environment. They classify the positive and negative effects of globalisation, identify the perspectives of different groups and use data to support their own point of view.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Globalisation
Country: Australia, China

The power of food

Unhusked rice and another crop are drying in the sun in a village near Sekong, Laos.
With the world' s population predicted to rise from 6.8 billion in 2010 to over 9 billion by 2050 there will be a massive increase in demand for food. Students examine maps and analyse information to identify ways of creating sustainable food security for all.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Food security
Country: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand

The safe water challenge

Clean running water in homes improves health and reduces work in Vietnam.
Students increase their knowledge and understandings about the availability of and access to safe, fresh water throughout the world. They identify the effect of human activity on freshwater systems and explain how this may lead to environmental challenges. They investigate and evaluate local and regional water initiatives and projects and how they can be involved and change their own behaviours.
Read more
Year level: 7-8
Issue: Water and sanitation
Country: Cambodia, India, Laos, Vietnam

Tourism and development

The steep Haa Valley in western Bhutan looks toward the snow-capped Himalayas.
Students examine the positive and negative effects of tourism in Australia and Bhutan using a case study and statistics to examine social, environmental and economic changes. They examine how varying approaches to tourism can support positive development and limit the negative effects. They reflect on their own future behaviour.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Cultural diversity, Globalisation, Poverty reduction
Country: Australia, Bhutan

True, real, compelling: the power of a story

The Wan Smolbag theatre group in Vanuatu demonstrates the dangers of HIV/AIDS.
This teaching sequence aims to investigate the methods used to represent people’s lives in different text forms. It explores the decisions made in creating texts and the effect of specific features, and provides stimulus for creating new texts.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Health

Voyage to the Pacific

Cultural, linguistic and biological evidence indicates people of the Pacific Islands travelled west through South-East Asia.
Students examine oral histories, language and scientific evidence to learn about interpreting evidence and timeline construction.
Read more
Year level: 7-8
Issue: Cultural diversity, Globalisation
Country: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

Waste matters

Plastic debris pollutes waterways.
Students investigate waste creation and management based on their own experiences and case studies. They develop key understandings about pressures on the environment, ecosystems and people’s health caused by waste, and explore ways of improving waste management to help build a sustainable future.
Read more
Year level: 3-4
Issue: Environment
Country: Australia

Water for life

A girl waters her family vegetable plot, helping to produce a healthy crop and vital nutrition in Sekong, Laos.
Students investigate why an adequate water supply is vital for people's health and wellbeing. They explore the difficulties some people in the world face in obtaining enough water, in order to deepen their understanding of why water is a precious resource for everyone.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Water and sanitation

We all need water

In Niger, villagers queue to use the new pump.
Students investigate the importance of water for survival. They learn about difficulties that many people in developing countries face in obtaining water and explore how and why access to clean water and adequate sanitation makes a huge difference to people’s lives.
Read more
Year level: 3-4
Issue: Water and sanitation
Country: Niger

Weather and where we live

In 2008 cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar lashing the country with strong winds and rain.
Students explore types of weather and how they affect daily life. They will investigate how living things are influenced by weather, including the activities they can do, housing styles and location, clothes and access to food. They will learn about seasons and weather in different parts of the world.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Environment
Country: Australia

What is globalisation?

Papua New Guinea’s first satellite dish will bring clearer, more reliable radio signals and improve connections to the world.
This unit develops students’ understandings of the term ‘globalisation’ using artwork, descriptions and a campaign. Students examine contrasting views about globalisation and gain insight into its positive and negative impacts.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Globalisation

What's globalisation got to do with me?

In 2006, women were active participants in the first direct elections in Aceh, Indonesia. They voted and stood for office.
Students explore ways in which they are linked to flows of people, capital, goods and services around the world; discuss advantages and disadvantages of globalisation; and analyse the intercultural understandings that inform working in a global context.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Globalisation, Cultural diversity

Who are the families of the world

A Samoan family stands outside their traditional open-walled house.
Students examine descriptions, photos and data to deepen their understanding of the diversity of families throughout the world. They develop an appreciation of the diversity of roles and recognise how families have changed over time.
Read more
Year level: F-2
Issue: Human rights, Cultural diversity

Working for a fairer world

Village women experience new freedom through learning and talking together, in Timor-Leste.
Human rights are fundamental for the life of all people. Students compare and contrast access to human rights in a number of countries and evaluate activities that seek to improve access to human rights.
Read more
Year level: 9-10
Issue: Human rights
Country: Timor-Leste, Laos