What if I were you?
As humans, we all have common basic needs. How we are able to meet those needs depends on the resources we have access to. During this unit, students will begin to differentiate between physical and emotional needs. They will explore ways in which needs are met within families around the world and compare these needs to their own. Students will examine circumstances that affect people’s ability to meet their needs and become familiar with both local and global organisations that assist individuals and communities when they are unable to meet their needs. In the end, students will begin to realise that they can make a difference and help to support those within our community.‘People in groups must act to empower others in need, for them to live sustainably and with dignity.’
Key questions
- What can affect people's ability to meet their needs?
- How might the skills and qualities of the UWC profile empower people to make change?
- How can people and organisations take sustainable action to support communities?
- What can affect people's ability to meet their needs?
- What can people do to make a difference in their communities?
- What determines informed action?
- How can people effectively take notes from videos?
We start by looking at what basic human needs are and how they are different to wants. Often our circumstances change our perspective of what we think we need and this ambiguity and complexity will be considered.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
This unit sits squarely within the human geography and service component of the Humanities part of the programme. Using important concepts such as responsibility and empathy, students will look at how our life experiences can be very much a product of where we live. Poverty and the associated difficulties of not being able to meet our basic needs will be looked at using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Additionally, ideas about local and global action bring the possibility of helping some of these less fortunate people within practical reach of our children in a sustainable way. The Service groups that exist within the UWCSEA community bring real help to real people and our Grade 5 students spend time finding out more about them. The quality of caring for others (we feel for them in their particular circumstance), is encouraged through the activities our students undertake.
Students will consider the communities that they are part of and how these groups of people can help others. We will pay close attention to the many service organisations that exist within the College and one in particular:
Temple Garden Foundation
Follow this link to visit their website and see some of the valuable projects they are working on:
http://www.tgfcambodia.com/
We will be working closely with TGF staff to see how funds raised to support the organisation are spent and we intend to track that spending through specific projects. Every year Grade 5 raises tens of thousands of dollars. We want our children to know where their money is going, how it is being spent and what kind of a difference it is making to the lives of people in these Cambodian communities.
Finally, this unit helps studentswe begin to explore and understand systems thinking. We introduce the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are a key foundation idea for both this unit and our subsequent work in other units, not least our Expo environmental project at the end of the year.
Next unit: Energy
