Model UN Homework Due 11/4

New and Returning Students:

We are ready to start country research!

Here are some starting research questions.

1. Where is your country located? What is the capital city?

2. What are the neighboring countries?

3. What are the physical features (mountains, rivers, nearby oceans, deserts, etc.)

4. What are some major events in your country's history? Why are they important?

5. What is the population of your country?

6. What ethnicities, religions and languages can be found in your country?

7. What are the traditional art forms?

8. What are the characteristics of your country's economy? (What does your country export?)

9. Who is the president or leader of your country?

10. What type of government does your country have?

11. What is the traditional diet?

12. What is the climate?

13. What are typical jobs in Tanzania?

Take notes on these areas (no full sentences necessary). Use books, not just web sites for this research. Make a trip to the library and reserve some books if necessary. Encyclopedias can be a good source of information, too. Do a lot of reading-you are trying to become an expert on your country.

For web sites, check out the cyberschoolbus site (Country at a Glance-on the left hand side),

the CIA factbook site: www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook (this is a great starting place) and the BBC News site (they have country info. in addition to news stories).

Homework Part II Due 10/21

New students:

Here's your next homework:

1. Read through these sections in your Model UN handbook: Present Day and What the UN Can and Cannot Do

2. With a highlighter or colored pencil, mark some ideas that you are think are important about the UN.

3. Using the ideas that you highlighted, make a list of FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions). Take the fact and turn it into a question.

a. Ex: fact: The UN does not make world laws ---> Can the UN pass global laws?

4. Use the format of a FAQ (look at the MMUN web page for help: http://www.montessori-mun.org/faq.php

a. Make sure you answer the questions with a sentence or two.

5. See how many questions and answers you can come up with (try to get a minimum of 10) Write your questions and answer on an index card (question on one side, answer on another)

6. Read the section The Six Main Organs of the UN. Take notes on each UN body (General Assembly, Security Council, ECOSOC, etc.) using lined paper or type it. Make sure your notes answer these questions:

a. What does this part of the UN do?

b. Who are the members?

c. How many members are there?

d. What type of problems do they solve?

e. Are members elected to this committee?

f. What are the suggested reforms for this body?

Returning students:

1. Re-read the sections in your handbooks: Present Day and What the UN Can and Cannot Do

2. Highlight any information in these sections that you forgot or didn't know before

3. Form in two groups (have a meeting at school and split up). Each group is responsible for creating a presentation about the UN for the Lower El classes.

a. Your presentation should include:

i. a poster or several small visuals

ii. the 5 Ws

iii. the mission of the UN

iv. the issues of the UN

v. the job of a delegate

vi. a few words about Model UN

***This presentation should be about 10-15 minutes long, including some time for questions at the end. Everyone speaks in the presentation. Practicing public speaking skills is important-you are showing the LE students what it takes to do Model UN. The practice could be done at school or at home. See me with more questions.***

Homework Due 10/21

Hi students,

Thanks for coming to the first Model UN meeting.

Here's your first assignment. It will be a long one because you have a week off for parent/teacher conferences and lots of time to work on it! You will need to break up this homework over the course of several days:

** Please note the homework is in 2 parts: one for new students and one for returning students**

New students:

1. Bookmark these three web sites (ask a parent if you don't know how to add a bookmark or a favorite)

a. www.cyberschoolbus.un.org

b. www.unausa.org

c. www.un.org

i. You'll be using these web sites for your research. Most of your research will be done with web sites because you will be looking for the most up to date information.

2. Go to the www.cyberschoolbus.un.org site. Click on links (listed in the Model UN sidebar) . Then click on UN intro

3. . Read the information about the history of the UN. Then answer these questions in sentences (except for the chart). You can use lined paper or type your answers. Do not e-mail me your homework. Please bring it to the next meeting on 10/21

4. Questions:

a. What are 5 W's related to the UN? (Who is in the UN? Where is it? When did it originate?) Do not include the How does it work question. Make a chart using columns that shows your answers (answers can be in note form)

b. What are the major goals of the UN?

c. What was in place before the United Nations? Why did it fail?

d. Who is a member of the Security Council? Why do some countries want to change the members?

Returning students:

1. Review the History of the UN on the cyberbus web site. Be prepared to answer typical 5 W type questions at the meeting.

2. Make sure you still have the un.org web site still bookmarked.

3. Go to un.org--->UN at a glance

a. Create a concept map of this information. UN is the main topic, you choose the subcategories (8-10). Concept maps include written info. and pictures. Look for info. that you don't know. Tape two pieces of paper together if you need more room.

4. At the UN at a Glance, click on Goodwill Ambassadors. Make a list of celebrities that you know and which committee they are associated with. Write a short paragraph about the job of the Goodwill Ambassador.

5. Go to the UN News Center. Make a chart displaying this information:

Location	Situation or Problem	UN Action
Developing Countries	Access to appropriate medical care	UN is making good progress in achieving universal access for people afflicted with HIV has been limited in many developing countries according to recent report
UN Headquarters	Child soldiers have been used to fight conflicts worldwide	11 new countries added their name to Paris Principles, a document that seeks to end child soldiers

Rachel's UNEP Speech

The Delegation of Israel recognizes that the world faces an environmental crisis.

There is not enough good land to grow food, nor enough clean water, and too much pollution has been made. The developed countries of North America and Europe use lots of energy and natural resources. They produce a lot of pollution and waste. Poor people in undeveloped parts of the world harm the environment because they don’t have good ways to support themselves.

Israel believes that those who create pollution should also pay for the cost of cleaning it up.

Israel supports taxing developed countries and big companies who create lots of pollution.

The delegation of Israel supports using this money to fund rainwater harvesting and drip irrigation in undeveloped areas, and to provide information and education about the importance of saving our global environment.

The delegation of Israel believes that it is important that the UN comes together to support these simple ideas to reduce pollution and support water conservation. Israel believes that by 2015 the goal of reducing the use of clean ground water and stopping pollution must be reach

Backboards and Greeting Cards

We are moving along in Model UN. Right now, we are working on our backboards. Our backboards contain facts about our countries; pictures of the people, food, and money; and maps of our countries. The countries we are working on are Libya, Israel, and Haiti. We also just finished working on our UN cards, which are cards that we made ourselves by hand, and they show the symbol of the UN, but we changed the symbol so that it was unique and our own. We were doing a fundraiser called "Equal Exchange" and we just turned in our money for that. I am getting kind of excited to go to NYC.

Ali Vondran

Updates for October/November

The students have started constructing their delegation backboards. These backboards display types of information about their country: geography, economy, cultural, political, etc. These backboards are on display for all the schools attending the conference. For our school, we are bringing three backboards to each represent Haiti, Libya and Israel.

We have two current fundraising projects. This month students have been selling Fair trade products like coffee, chocolate, tea and other items to earn money for our trip, and to also promote safe labor practices that do not include child labor. In addition to their sales, they are creating peace-themed greeting cards that will be sold at an upcoming school event. We used the official UN symbol of the world map supported by the olive branches for inspiration.

Welcome to Khalsa's Model UN Information Page

Welcome to the Model United Nations program at Khalsa Montessori. We have 14 dedicated elementary and middle school students who are attending an after school club to learn about peace education, the politics of other countries and how the United Nations attempts to help people worldwide. These students will attend the Montessori Model United Nations conference held in March 2010 in Brooklyn, NY as well as at the actual United Nations site. These students could be our future amabassadors and world leaders!

Montessori Model United Nations is an annual conference held in New York where students from all over the United States as well as other countries gather together to simulate the work of the UN. Students act as delegates from their assigned country, and complete intensive research about their country to prepare for the conference. At the conference, the delegates practice conflict resolution, negotiation, public speaking and formal writing skills. During the conference, students visit the United Nations building and vote on the resolutions they have drafted in their respective committees. The work that these students are able to do at such a young age is truly remarkable.

The goal of this program is to provide an opportunity for students to practice their conflict resolution skills that they learned in the classroom in an academic, international setting. They learn how to speak from another person’s perspective, which is essential part of being able to resolve problems with others in general. In addition, they gain insight into many of the world’s problems through this process.

We hope that you will consider supporting these students by making a donation in order to make their trip possible. Please follow the link to our Paypal account and remember if you're an AZ resident, this donation can be used as a the Arizona school tax credit donation (dollar-for-dollar return on your donation). Thank you!