Sustainable Development Goals

Course & Campus Examples

• Systems Thinking in One Health | Graduate Course| PHC 6446

This course utilizes the SDGs as the backbone to teaching the concepts of systems thinking and one health, and includes lecturers from different disciplines across UF and around the world. The One Health Center of Excellence at the University of Florida focuses on understanding the interconnections between the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment.

• Challenge 2050: Global Uncertainty | Undergraduate Course | ALS 2410

This course utilizes the SDGs as a framework for discussing global challenges and the leadership processes and tools needed to address them through systems thinking and a fact-based world view. This course is the prerequisite to complete the Undergraduate Global Leadership & Change Certificate.

• Sustainable Solutions in the Built Environment | Undergraduate Course| DCP 3210

This course utilizes the SDGs as an integral part of each module for discussion, and through application in class projects.

• Field & Fork Campus Food Program | Multiple Engagement Opportunities

The Field & Fork program is a collaboration with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Student Affairs, designed to both teach sustainable food system and provide fresh produce to people experiencing food insecurity. With an educational farm, it offers UF courses, internships, volunteering, and community events to connect across the interdisciplinary facets of sustainable agriculture, and grow for those in need.

*The above content is from Sustainable Development Goals in the Classroom: A UF Faculty Guide for Using the United Nations SDGs, a resource developed by a group of UF faculty and staff in early 2020. 

Activity Ideas

• "My" SDG Assignment Connections: In Systems Thinking in One Health, each student is assigned a sustainable development goal at the beginning of the semester. Throughout the course, assignments (discussion board prompts, 3 minute presentations or videos, etc.) are framed from their sustainable developmental goal’s point of view. It allows “role play” by taking on a goal as their own.
• Service-Learning Connections: With the SDG framework, students can connect service-learning opportunities to one of the SDGs; communication and reporting of their learning experience is framed through the lens of the selected SDG and organizational context.
• SDGs in the News or SDGs Around Me Journal: A personal journal throughout a semester enables either general observation of the SDGs in a student's personal life or through media, or specific observation focused on one SDG per week for the duration of the semester. This practice develops greater awareness of how the SDGs connect to many facets of our daily lives.

*The above content is from Sustainable Development Goals in the Classroom: A UF Faculty Guide for Using the United Nations SDGs, a resource developed by a group of UF faculty and staff in early 2020.

Classroom Resources

• Dive into Intangible Cultural Heritage is a visual representation of intangible cultural heritage can be sorted in multiple ways, including by SDGs. 
• ActNow is a campaign by the UN that provides ideas of simple actions that students can take and commit to in order to reduce their carbon footprint. Examples include walking or biking more instead of driving, recycling, and taking 5-minute showers.
• Gapminder is a nonprofit that offers multiple interactive resources to help students challenge their misconceptions about the world. Backed by facts, their tools show students realities from around the world on both individual and societal scales.
• The SDG Fund Case Studies offer examples of how to advance the SDGs in many innovative ways. The case studies are tagged with the SDG(s) they address.
• SDG Academy provides a compilation of massive open online courses and educational resources related to the SDGs.

Getting Started with the SDGs

Develop a Basic Understanding of the SDGs

• Reflect on how the SDGs connect to your discipline
• Explore some of the recommended resources on this webpage.
• Take the Gapminder Worldview Upgrader Quizzes to understand potential misconceptions about the UN Goals
• Explore personal habits connected to the SDGs
• Commit to one of the ten simple actions in the Act Now Campaign

Consider how you can connect the SDGs to a course you teach

• Consider adding sustainability as a topic within your class, as it connects to your course
• Develop a class with a focus on sustainability framed through the SDGs
• Include activities that benefit or increase awareness of community organizations
• Encourage students to commit to one of the Act Now Campaign actions

*The above content is from Sustainable Development Goals in the Classroom: A UF Faculty Guide for Using the United Nations SDGs, a resource developed by a group of UF faculty and staff in early 2020.

Contacts

To learn more about these efforts, please contact:

Natalie Coers
Lecturer
Agricultural Education & Communication
UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
ncoers@ufl.edu