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CyberSchool Bus can provide a great introduction to the United Nations in simplified language for Middle School students. This link will provide pages describing the creation of the United Nations, as well as:
  • Aims and Principles of the UN
  • History "League of Nations"
  • UN Charter
  • UN System

This can be used in conjunction with Stein and Williams: Uniting the Nations through Model United Nations: Chapter 1
  • Stein and Williams pg. 11 illustrates "The People of the World" - segway for a good discussion about the difference between "We the peoples. . ." instead of "We the governments"
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The short introduction and the links to various questions such as "How the UN Works" and "What the UN does for Peace" could be dividing between students for short presentations or trivia games.

CyberSchoolbus Provides many different links to activities that are helpful for "Getting Started"


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SOCIAL JUSTICE is a theme that students generally take to heart. The link below provides suggestions of how to ask the "tough questions" about issues of equity and civic responsibility.

Social justice is the principle of positive peace that complements the notion of peace as the absence of direct and institutional violence (negative peace). Students can begin to explore issues of social justice by asking questions such as:

  • Why is it not possible for human civilisation, with its abundance of natural, economic, technological, and cultural resources, to provide adequately for the basic needs of all people on the planet?
  • What are the roots of world hunger and poverty?
  • What is the current distribution of the world’s wealth and how did it get that way?
  • What is the average level of education for citizens of the world’s poorest countries? The world’s richest countries?
  • What is the impact of globalisation on rural communities throughout the world? On organised labour? On the fulfilment of human rights?
  • How does pollution affect the lives of women, men, and children in developing countries? In industrialised countries?
  • What is the impact of long-term military presence on the environment? On child and maternal health?
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/peace/frame3_4.htm