One World One Future
The One World One Future program is here to engage your students, faculty, or organization.
A professional development experience for Grade 4-12 teachers & curriculum supervisors that becomes an interactive assembly for your students about the interdependence of people and nations.
Develops skills in:
- Strategic thinking
- Bargaining and compromise
- Conflict resolution
- Team-building/cooperative learning
Sponsored by EIRC with funding support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
One World, One Future is an interactive assembly program for students (Grades 4-12) and/or adults (professional development). The simulation is played in a large room such as cafeteria, all-purpose room or gymnasium. It can be used with groups of 40-200, although 100 is ideal.
All participants have roles to play in One World, One Future. They represent a scale model of the world (each person is 1/100 of the Earth’s 6+ billion people). Members of your local community (police, local government officials, church leaders, board of education) can be invited to participate along with students.
The simulation takes about 75 minutes to carry out, followed by approximately 45 minutes of group discussion. It takes place over a meal, either breakfast or lunch, forcing participants to come face-to-face with issues of social justice, equity, poverty, and the economic and social disparity of nations. Their circumstances encourage participants to communicate, work together as teams, to problem-solve, bargain, compromise and think strategically.
Our sister simulation, Sustainable Earth goes into more detail about the world and world problems allowing the participants to learn and solve issues facing countries with climate change and global warming as an over-arching theme. Sustainable Earth works with the same number of students (Grades 4-12) or adults (professional development) and takes about three to four hours. The simulation doesn’t center around a meal but a break in the simulation is often made to accommodate lunch for students.
Benefits of One World, One Future as a professional development experience for your staff:
- Training to conduct your own One World, One Future assembly program
- Resource/Activities/Posters Package for each participating teacher
- Active engagement of all participants
- Breakfast or lunch for all participants
- Professional Development Credit (2.5 hours)
- Post-workshop technical support
If the World Were a Village of 100 People:
- 22 people speak Chinese
- 20 people earn less than $1/day
- 17 cannot read or write
- 60 are always hungry
- 24 have a television in their home
What previous participants said:
- “Total involvement of all participants” — Elementary Principal
- “Great idea, great execution. Very inspiring.”— 5th Grade teacher
- “A great activity that will give value to our kids regarding our world” — 7th Grade social studies teacher.
- “A great activity that can be adapted to meet various needs” — Middle School teacher
- “Provided spin-off ideas that could be incorporated into the entire school year”— Curriculum supervisor
- “Thought-provoking classroom strategies.” — 4th Grade teacher
- “Can be used to instruct a variety of social studies and social skills.” — Special Education teacher
- “I learned that a lot of people have it worse than here” — 5th Grade student
- “I got out of the food line and gave some of my chips to people from the Third World”— 5th Grade Student
“I want to help. It just doesn’t seem fair.” —- 4th Grade student
ENGAGE YOUR STUDENTS IN A REAL-WORLD ACTIVITY
The US today is crucially dependent on other nations for the materials of everyday life. Examine the labels on your clothes, or food at the grocery! The world’s five largest economies are also the world’s largest energy importers. Europe and Japan are 85-100% dependent on imports of most strategic metals, as is the U.S. The stronger the nation, the more dependent it is.
What do we know about other nations and what do they know about us?
“Every nation needs something another nation has: long-term trends spell interdependence for just about everyone in everything. The world’s nations, having exhausted their natural resources, may still find ways to survive on the wings of artifice, but they will do it interdependently and together…globally or not at all.” — from Jihad-vs. McWorld- Benjamin Barber
To inquire about costs and availability of ONE WORLD, ONE FUTURE Simulation contact:
Erik Mollenhauer or Brian Hayes
EIRC is a NJ public agency serving schools since 1968