​WW-P MIDDLE SCHOOL
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Project Options
Below are the project options students will have the opportunity to work on for the Global Challenge. Each student will receive his/her first choice but will be grouped randomly with other similarly interested peers.
Option 1. Hunger
​Are you someone who cares about helping people so they don’t have to worry about getting enough food to survive? Could you imagine inventing, designing, or building something to help feed those who do not have enough food for themselves or their family? Today there are 870 million people in the world do not eat enough to remain healthy and yet it is believed that hunger is the world’s most solvable problem. Your team will identify a country that is currently in a hunger crisis and how this directly affects that country’s ability to grow and develop.
If you select this option, your task will be to develop a workable solution that will enable the country to work its way out of this crisis, and in turn, serve as a model for similarly situated countries. Read the Task Sheet for more information.
Option 2. Education and Gender Equality
​Are you concerned about making sure that every child has the right to a quality education, regardless of where they are born or what gender they are? Can you imagine a world where being born female doesn’t condemn a child to a life of danger and missed opportunities? Could you imagine inventing, designing, or building something to help children (especially girls) better access a quality education? We know that education creates opportunities, transforms lives, and breaks the cycle of poverty that traps so many children. Your team will identify a country that currently struggles with providing universal access to education and/or gender equality that directly affects the country’s ability to grow and develop.
If you select this option, your task will be to develop a workable solution that will enable the country to work its way out of this crisis, and in turn, serve as a model for similarly situated countries. Read the Task Sheet for more information.
Option 3. Global Health
Are you someone who is concerned about improving the quality of health across the globe and stopping the spread of preventable diseases? Can you imagine inventing, designing, or building something to help mothers and children get the care they need and deserve? Although there have been vast improvements to global health, there are still many significant concerns that need to be addressed. Child and maternal mortality rates have dropped, yet millions of women and children continue to die from preventable diseases. In addition, although the incidence of HIV is declining in most regions still 2.5 million people are newly infected each year.
If you select this option, your team will identify a country that has not met one of the specific health targets and clarify how these issues directly affect the country’s ability to grow. Then, develop a solution to enable the country to work its way out of this crisis, and in turn, serve as a model for similarly situated countries. Read the Task Sheet for more information.
Option 4. Global Environment
Are you someone who is interested as well as concerned about the state of our global environment? Could you imagine inventing, designing, or building something to protect our natural habitat? As you know, the problems facing the world regarding the destruction of our environment require immediate attention.
If you select this option, as a team of scientists, your group will select an environmental goal that you consider most essential (such as access to clean water and basic sanitation, protecting against deforestation, preserving biodiversity, etc.) and then identify a country that is currently far from meeting this target which directly affects this country’s ability to grow and develop. Your task will be to develop a workable solution that will enable the country to work its way out of this crisis, and in turn, serve as a model for similarly situated countries. Read the Task Sheet for more information.
Option 5. Social Media Campaign
Do you often use social media to communicate? Do you think you would enjoy figuring out a way to convey an important message to a large audience using social media?
If you choose this task, you will be a part of a non-profit communications firm that will develop a social media awareness campaign for an existing organization that works directly with countries to assist them in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Your task will be to help your nonprofit organization change how teenagers both think about and act on the identified issue. Your job will be to figure out the message you need to convey and the best way to tell it. In order to do this, you will research challenges facing your nonprofit organization, collect data from your peers on their current awareness level of the issue, their social media preferences, and from there, develop an awareness campaign (through creating advertisements, educational materials, social media outreach, etc.) that effectively messages your client’s mission so they are better able to attract the target teenage audience in today’s crazy, noisy, media-saturated world. You even have the option of creating a bilingual campaign if you so choose. Read the Task Sheet in the Project Resources tab for more information.
Option 6. SDGs in the USA
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 internationally agreed upon goals that cover a range of ambitious objectives to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure equality and prosperity for all. Specifically in the United States, while the economy has created great wealth and technological wonders, there continues to be a divide between the haves and the have-nots along with significant threats to the natural environment. Indeed, the US, while one of the richest countries in the world, is not a top performer in sustainable development as it ranks 35th overall. We’ve identified three key areas (providing access to safe water, ensuring healthier lives, and promoting inclusive, equitable quality education) in which certain parts of the U.S. are lagging and could improve. Through offering these different case studies, you will see examples of communities in the U.S. that struggle to meet these goals. The task is to select one of the three case studies, and through your research and analysis, help the U.S. identify the key policy priorities, determine the areas where the most urgent action is needed, and ultimately develop an integrated solution (e.g. through government, business, and/or academia) that will help the U.S. achieve the relevant SDG target.
Option 7. Design for a Difference: Clean Water for Nepal
Are you someone who likes to invent things? Design and build? Do you like the challenge of trying to improve existing technology?
If you choose this task, you will be part of a global design team that is charged with helping solve a water crisis in Nepal. Your team’s Design for Difference challenge will either be to invent/design a solution or improve upon an existing program/technology that will identify and help overcome the obstacles facing the nation, address the underlying problem causing this situation, and start to improve the lives of the affected population. You must create a blueprint and if you have time/ resources, you may create a prototype to show the judges. Read the Task Sheet for more information.
Option 8. Design for a Difference: Protect/Assist Refugees
Are you concerned with the plight of refugees and displaced persons? Do you wish you could design or invent something to make their journey more comfortable and safe? This Design for a Difference Challenge reframes the refugee crisis as a design problem: What might make the migrant’s arduous trek more comfortable and safe? What might provide migrants with the resources they need as they await asylum or return to their homes? What will they need once they gain entry or are resettled in a new community?
If you choose this task, your team will design game-changing, yet feasible, cost-effective ideas which might be products, communication campaigns, services and/or technologies for challenges related to transportation, housing, healthcare, education, work, cultural integration and many other areas. Consider how your team can strengthen, build on or enhance the best things already happening, or come up with an entirely new and great idea! Read the Task Sheet for more information.