Have you ever wished that your students could have a real impact on the world? I’m sure they have. Most school projects involve a writing assignment and a poster. Wouldn’t it be better if what you and your students do in class actually had an effect on the real world?

Have you heard of SDGs? They are 17 Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations that are designed to help people, the planet, and the future. 

A great introduction for your class can be found here. Watch the videos linked and have a class discussion to introduce the topic of Sustainable Development Goals.

Here are 8 ideas that you can actually enact in class and have a positive outcome on the world and your community. All of these projects have real world consequences that hopefully will extend beyond your class time and empower your students to change the world.

1. Grow and Give Away (or Sell) Plants

Let students research the best plants for cleaning pollutants from the air and how to get those plants. Help students get the plants or seeds, dirt, pots, etc. If you’re lucky, you or your students might know someone who’d happily donate plant cuttings or seeds. After you’ve planted your plants, let them grow, measured their growth and taken care of them for several weeks (or months), it’s time to give them away. Students can advertise that they’re giving away free plants and make little note cards to explain how to take care of the plants. Be sure to take photos of the new plant owners and your students.

And that’s it! You’ve helped clean the air all around town by distributing air cleaning plants to different homes.

If you want to sell the plants at the end of the project, you can donate the money to a charity of your class’s choice, doubling the impact they’re project is having on the world.

2. Make a Compost Bin

With your students, research how to make a compost bin. You can watch a video together and take notes.

Next, gather your materials. See if you or any of your students would be willing to donate dirt or an old plastic bin. After you’ve built the compost bin, it’s time to gather food scraps. If your school serves lunch or a snack, you might be able to gather the scraps then. Otherwise, ask students to bring food scraps from home. Be sure to check which foods can and can’t go in a compost bin.

After a few weeks or months, you should have some great compost dirt. You can use this in the school garden, plant your own plants in the classroom, or donate the compost dirt to students who want it for their home. Either way, your class has helped cut down on food waste and given back to the environment!

3. Start an In-School Campaign

Your students can have an impact on other students in your school.

First choose a topic that your students are passionate about. Do they want to save water? Stop food waste? Save electricity? Encourage others to exercise? Or eat more vegetarian meals? Take a look at the SDGs and let your students decide what they’re most passionate about.

Next, decide how they are going to advertise the campaign. They can make posters, go talk to other classes, create a video and send it on the school email list, or anything else they can come up with to help get their message out. Give students plenty of time to research and plan in class.

After they’ve finished their campaign, they can even interview other students from other classrooms to see if their campaign had any effect on how others live their lives.

4. Interview a Green Business

Let students research what eco-friendly businesses there are in their area. Is there a green building nearby? A farm-to-table restaurant? An eco-friendly products shop? A green hotel?

Next, let students research who they can talk to about the business. Is there an architect or business owner who they can talk to? Reach out to that person via email or a phone call and set a date.

Let students write questions they want to ask this person and on the day of the interview (which can be in-person, online, or over the phone) let them ask their questions. Be sure to record all the questions and answers.

Finally, let your students share what they learned. They can release a newsletter on the school mail system, put posters around the school, make a video explaining what they learned, or any other way they can think of to get the information out there. Who knows who your students might inspire with the information they’ve learned? It could even inspire them!

5. Start an Out-of-School Campaign

Take the same concept as number 4, but instead of spreading the word in school, let students influence others outside of the school. They can make a video about a topic they’re passionate about and share it online. They can post posters in a library, on a college campus, or in a bookshop, or anywhere else students are allowed to put up flyers. They can even start a social media campaign!

Whatever it is, let students decide what they’re most passionate about, how they can spread the word, and help them do it!

6. Clean the Beach or a Park

You might not be able to take students on a field trip depending on the type of school you teach at, but you can help organize one. Let students research and decide what place in their neighborhood needs to be cleaned up. Help them create posters, videos, or flyers to explain to their families why and when this clean up should take place. As the teacher, you should contact parents and share the posters/videos/flyers with them. Encourage as many of your classmates and their families as you can to show up on Clean Up day. 

On the big day, be sure to take before and after photos, and record how much trash was cleaned up.

7. Collect Donations for a Charity

Let students research local charities and what types of donations they need. Does the charity need money, food, books, or something else? After students have chosen a charity, make posters/videos/flyers/newsletters/etc. advertising the need for these donations. Help students collect the donations over the course of a week or month. Then help students bring these donations to their charity of choice.

8. Sell Something for Charity

First, choose a charity that is collecting monetary donations. Second, help students choose something simple for them to sell. It needs to be something cheap and relatively simple to make, but something which others would be willing to buy. Some good things for your class to sell could be baked goods, no-bake cookies (which are easier to make in the classroom), popcorn, bracelets, key-chains, or anything else your students can think of. 

Make sure to advertise heavily in the days leading up to the big sale. Students can tell their friends and families about the sale, put up flyers, etc.

Then sell your chosen items and take whatever money you’ve earned to charity.

Do you have any other ideas for great class projects that can change the world and your local community? Let me know down below.

And if you want more lessons where you students can learn something useful about life, check out Podcast Questions – Time Management.