Grade 9: Foreign Aid

Timing: 5 x 30-40 minute periods

Activity type: Group Research/Critical Thinking

Description:

A group project during which students must evaluate several Canadian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) using criteria developed by the group. 

Expectations:

Global Connections
  • Explain the role of selected international organizations and agreements and why Canada participates in them.
  • Summarize significant contributions Canada makes to the world.
  • Evaluate Canada’s participation in organizations that deal with global issues.
  • Summarize ways in which the economies of Canada and the rest of the world are interdependent.
  • Produce a set of guidelines for developing a solution to a global geographic or environmental issue.

 



Materials:

Teaching Strategies and Application:

  1. Briefly discuss the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and its role in funding Canadian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working internationally.  Explain that CIDA has five million dollars to distribute to five Canadian NGOs (one million dollars per NGO).  CIDA has decided to let the class decide which NGOs to fund.  Explain that for the purpose of this project, international development organizations have been grouped into 5 categories: health & nutrition, poverty, human rights, education, and peace & safety. 

  2. One organization from each category will receive one million dollars in funding.  The class will be divided into five groups; each group will take a category, develop a list of potential recipients, and ultimately decide from this list which NGO is the ‘most worthy’ of this funding. 

  3. Lead a class brainstorming session regarding how the groups might want to make this decision.  Lead the discussion towards creating a set of criteria for ‘grading’ the organizations.  What criteria might the NGOs be graded on?  Some suggestions include: organization mission and vision, goals, purpose, structure, type of work, amount spent on administrations versus projects, results, funding mechanisms.

  4. Divide the class into groups.  Hand out the Assignment Guidelines and Rubric For Presentation sheets.  Explain that each group must develop its own rubric to rate the organizations in their category (the class should be familiar with the concept of rubrics).  Once the NGOs have been graded, they are to create a poster about the winning organization, explain how it was rated, and why it won.  The poster must then be presented to the class.  During the 15-20 minute presentation, they must also explain why their category of international development is relevant or important.  They will be graded with a rubric.       

Download a Pdf version of this lesson plan.

HOME ABOUT ACTIVITIES DIY! FEEDBACK RESOURCES CREDITS WATERCAN