19 BUILD RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE, PROMOTE INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIALIZATION AND FOSTER INNOVATION
Goal 9 extends the idea of decent work to the development of infrastructure, such as transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology, to achieve sustainable development and community empowerment around the world. Investing in the research and development of technological progress, education and the empowerment of marginalized communities can help us achieve our environmental objectives of renewable resources and energy-efficiency.
Learning Objectives
- Learners will understand the concepts of sustainable infrastructure and industrialization.
- Learners will understand the local, national and global challenges to achieving resilient infrastructure and industrialization.
- Learners will be able to identify opportunities in their own culture and nation for greener and more resilient infrastructure, understanding their risks and overall benefits.
- Learners will be able to reflect on the pitfalls of unsustainable development.
Essential Questions
Media (Identification of Value/Biases):
How can media keep industries accountable to their social, economic and environmental impact?
Environment
What are the essential qualities of sustainable development regarding environmental protection?
Poverty, wealth and power
How can industrialization or innovation help end the poverty cycle?
Indigenous Peoples
How can infrastructure development and industrialization be more inclusive of Indigenous perspectives and rights?
Oppression and genocide
How does government corruption affect infrastructure development and industrialization?
Health and biotechnology
How can we ensure healthy working conditions amidst economic development?
Gender politics
How can we ensure spaces for women in innovative technological sectors?
Social justice and human tights
Could access to Internet become a human right? What would it look like?
Peace and conflict
How is industrial development impacted during times of conflict?
Overview of The Goal
So what is Infrastructure, anyway?
Good infrastructure means roads and bridges are passable, buildings are safe, levees don’t break, electricity is stable, water is clean, you can get online, trash gets picked up, snow gets plowed, mail gets delivered, fires get put out and ambulances come when you call. Some elements are:
Connection: Transporting goods, moving around, using the internet and sharing ideas across distances.
Access: Basic needs such as running water and electricity.
Resilience in the face of natural disasters.
Across the world there is inequity in infrastructure. Not everyone has equal access to the things that allow us to function in our daily lives.
You might not think about it every day, but you definitely use it. Good infrastructure means roads and bridges are passable, buildings are safe, levees don’t break, electricity is stable, water is clean, you can get online, trash gets picked up, snow gets plowed, mail gets delivered, fires get put out and ambulances come when you call. It’s not very exciting on the surface, but without it, the world wouldn’t run. Some elements of infrastructure are:
Connection to one another and to different locations. Transporting goods, moving around, using the internet and sharing ideas across distances.
Access to basic needs, such as running water and electricity.
Resilience in the face of natural disasters.
Across the world there is inequity in infrastructure. Not everyone has equal access to the things that allow us to function in our daily lives.
Industry is the production of goods or related services within an economy. Innovation is a new idea, device or method. Infrastructure refers to the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city or area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function.
About 2.6 billion people in the developing world are facing difficulties in accessing electricity full time. 2.5 billion people worldwide lack access to basic sanitation and almost 800 million people lack access to water, a huge part of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 1-1.5 billion people do not have access to reliable phone services. In developing countries, barely 30% of agricultural production undergoes industrial processing, while in high-income countries, 98% of it is processed
Learning Activities
Websites for Research: WHY SHOULD GOVERNMENTS INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE?
Reliable and resilient infrastructure is necessary for communities to function, but it is also an investment in that community. Infrastructure is often seen as the backbone of the economy.
Why Infrastructure Matters: Rotten Roads, Bum Economy
The Economic Impact of Infrastructure Spending
The Economics of Infrastructure (video)
Websites for Research: WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE HAVE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET?
As technology has advanced, the internet has become an integral part of our lives. Despite this, people across the country and across the world still don’t have reliable access.
Individuals Using the Internet
If You’ve Never Heard of the Homework Gap, This Video Will Shock You
What Happens When Kids Don’t Have Internet at Home?
How the Internet Works in 5 Minutes
Rural America Is Building Its Own Internet Because No One Else Will
Websites for Research: HOW DO PEOPLE SURVIVE AND REBUILD AFTER A DISASTER?
Natural disasters affect every aspect of its victims’ lives, including the infrastructure of their communities. Take a look at how infrastructure holds up against things like hurricanes and earthquakes and how communities recover.
Why It’s So Hard To Turn The Lights Back On In Puerto Rico
Flood Warning Systems In Bosnia & Herzegovina
Irma Grazes Puerto Rico but Lays Bare an Infrastructure Problem
In Houston, Thousands Remain Displaced As Harvey Recovery Continues
Have Conditions Improved In Haiti Since 2010 Earthquake?
While the world’s attention is elsewhere, Bangladesh faces a humanitarian crisis
Websites for Research: DO MAJOR EVENTS LIKE THE OLYMPICS HELP STRENGTHEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN A LOCATION OR WEAKEN IT?
Planning and hosting the Olympics is no small feat. Think about all of the venues, arenas and housing that have to be built if it doesn’t already exist. After the Olympics are over, they’re all still there. What infrastructure and innovation needs to happen? What effect does this have on the host city?
The Economics of Hosting the Olympic Games
How Atlanta’s Olympic Venues are Faring, 20 Years Later
Ghosts of Olympic stadiums past: what happens when the Games are all over?
Websites for Research: PORTRAITS OF RESILIENCE
These are the 14 year old girls shaking up the STEM industry in Zimbabwe
Internet.org, a project by Facebook
Project Loon, a project by Google
Technology crafts for the digitally underserved, Ted Talk
How can we stop Africa’s scientific brain drain? Ted Talk,
Sustainability by Design, Ted Playlist
The American Society of Civil Engineers Grand Challenge
These Haitian women were doing great in U.S. — and then returned to aid quake-hit nation
Games: WALK A MILE: BUILDING EMPATHY THROUGH GAMES
Lesson Plan: Designing for a Circular Economy from The World’s Largest Lesson
This lesson is part of a series of lessons which introduce students to a different way of thinking about how our economy could work: a circular economy. The series builds up exactly how a circular economy is different from the status quo, and looks at the economic, environmental and social advantages of a new approach.
Website for Research: Redesigning Plastic Packaging
Plastics have become an integral part of modern life, providing many benefits for consumers and producers. But what happens to our waste plastic? Where does it all end up? Is recycling plastics really that effective? In this lesson, students will explore how we use plastics in everyday packaging and how these might be redesigned in such a way as to not become a ‘waste’ problem. Moving beyond methods to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ at end of life, students will explore ways of designing waste out of the system from the outset.
http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2017/08/Redesigning-plastic-packaging_final.pdf
Lesson Plans: Understanding the Challenge of Finite Resources Lesson Plans from The World’s Largest Lesson
Videos
Video introducing Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Uq1wo1uto
Ted Talk on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA_fs_S2qQE
Social Media
Below are links to several dynamic conversations, communities and experts on social media.
Assessment and Reflection
Reflection Journal
Quote: There is no market for your emotions, so never advertise your feelings. Just display your attitude.
- Describe the learning activities (articles, videos, etc.) and your experience – What did you do/hear/see?
- Interpret and evaluate the events from your perspective – What do I think about it now? How does it relate to other things that I know?
- Explain your experience; reveal your new insights, connections with other learning, your hypotheses, and your conclusions.
- Reflect on how this information will be useful to you – What questions do I have? Have I changed how I think about the situation? Where do I go from here?
- What did you particularly value and why?
- Is there anything you would do in the next unit? What have you learned? What will you do with these lessons?
Renewable Assignment Options
Encourage collaboration. Look for ways stakeholders like non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, businesses and community members can help solve problems. Look for inclusive, resilient and sustainable solutions that benefit as many people as possible. You can challenge projects and policies that you don’t think are fair through your voice on social media, print media and demonstrations. You can also use your vote and your dollar to influence policies and products that you think are doing a good job or need to improve.
Speak up and out. Ensuring our right to communicate and connect is essential to our individual, economic and political prosperity. However, many groups such as people of colour, immigrants, minorities, women and LGBTQ groups, are under attack from censorship and bullying. In order to benefit from Internet access, it has to be a safe space for everyone. Speak out against bullies and speak up over censorship of marginalized groups.
Expand your understanding. Anyone can use their creativity to problem solve with innovative solutions. Set out to learn some new tech skills and involve yourself in an innovative community. Look for ways to apply your innovative ideas to better your community and improve the capacity of marginalized groups. Innovation comes from collaboration, so look for ways to learn, share and think critically with people in your community and on the other side of the world.
Support projects that promote sustainable growth and protect the environment. Do your research before raising and donating funds. Get involved in local industry and infrastructure decisions and speak up about future developments or address existing projects and help make them more sustainable.
Let your dollar do the work. Make ethical decisions while you’re shopping to make sure your dollars are supporting producers who protect the environment and receive a fair wage. One way to do this is to buy fair trade items or look for B-Corp Certified products.11 A fair trade item ensures your dollars are supporting producers who protect the environment and receive a fair wage. For more information and resources on fair trade, please see SDG 12.
Spark innovation in your students by hosting your own version of the entrepreneurship show. Have students work in teams to brainstorm innovative ideas and solutions for getting more people access to the internet, public transportation, electricity and safe water. After they have their plan, they can present to “investors.” Take it even further and have students receive feedback from other inventors on a collaborative site, like Quirky.
Business Students Dive into the “Shark Tank”
Raise money and awareness for Puerto Rico, or another community affected by a natural disaster. Press coverage has slowed, but people still need help.
Puerto Rico hurricane victims still need help. Here’s what you can do
Even kids can have a role in helping after natural disasters
When natural disasters hit, the resilience of buildings is tested. Turn your students into engineers! Using Minecraft, Legos or even toothpicks, challenge students to work together to construct hurricane-proof housing.
Students Design World-Fixing Solutions
The Search for Real-World STEM Problems
Getting Started with Minecraft in the Classroom
Though you may have internet access, not everyone does. Students can pitch in to improve internet access around the world. Have your class create a campaign to raise awareness or invent a solution for this issue.
Why 4.4 Billion People Still Don’t Have Internet Access
Grappling With Real-World Problems
Better Internet Connectivity is Helping Improve People’s Lives in Kosovo
Pay attention. Follow news stories about nations and communities recovering from natural disasters. Where are people still struggling to access basic needs? When new structures are being built in your community, ask questions about how they’ll impact the environment and people’s lives. Think about what you have access to compared to other people in the world (or even across town). What condition are the roads in? How often do you see construction projects? Find out how improvement projects are being paid for in your community.
Feel connected. Get to know an engineer, listen to stories of people displaced by natural disasters, talk to first responders and city planners in your community. Who makes decisions about how your community runs?
