Over 50 SDG-Related Project Ideas
Here is a list of over 50 SDG-Related Project Ideas for students that address the Sustainable Development Goals and encourage student agency. We’ve categorized these Sustainable Development project examples by goal.
Remember - projects are sparked from a student’s innate motivation to pursue a goal or challenge, question a curiosity or turn an interest into purpose. Now more than ever, we need to turn to open-ended, student-centered projects to keep our students engaged. For a completely learner-centric experience, students can choose the SDG that they are interested in and then choose from the list of SDG project ideas below or have your class tackle one SDG and allow students to choose a path under that SDG!
Allow students to dive deep into an SDG-related topic that is significant to them and relevant to their lives. Motivation is heightened when students are personally invested in their projects and feel in control of their journey. The impact each student will have on the Sustainable Development Goal will be so much better if students have a say.
Not Ready for total Student Ownership?
Even though students are choosing their SDG and/or project idea, you still need to give them structure. Spinndle can help with this. All projects in the real-world have timelines, deliverables and structures to stay on track and do good work. Put your students in the driver’s seat so they can learn to self-monitor, manage their time, evaluate their work, and find ways to improve by seeking feedback from their teacher and peers. These life skills are highly valued in today and tomorrow’s workplaces. Provide them with formal structures, timelines and deliverables to keep them accountable for their process. Spinndle holds students accountable for their individual project process, start to finish.
Real-world project ideas that address the sustainable development goals
NO HUNGER. ZERO POVERTY
The Hunger Project — What action can we perform to raise awareness of poverty/hunger in our community? How do my actions contribute to local and global poverty/hunger? What does hunger look like? What are the causes of Hunger? What are some strategies that have been used to address hunger? See Problem-based learning framework.
Hunger in the Media — How is hunger represented in the media? How should we change the narrative? What stories about hunger get told? What stories should we tell? See Inquiry-based learning framework.
Food Waste Project — How can we reduce food waste at school and in our community? See Design Thinking Framework
A Balanced Meal — How can we create a healthy, sustainable meal plan for our families? See Mini-project Framework
Food For Thought Project — Understand the industrial and sustainable food systems and the steps in each. Where does our food come from? Where does our waste go? Does everyone have equal access to food? Are all farmers treated fairly? How does climate change impact our food system? Focus on one aspect of the food system. Educate your peers on your findings. See Guided Inquiry Framework
Food Supply Project — Research the agricultural activities that pose a risk to natural habitats. Focus on one activity that matters to you. How can you develop ways to indirectly or directly solve this problem? Or research how COVID-19 or other pandemics have affected agriculture around the world. Choose one country or scenario to focus on and do a deep investigation. How can you develop ways to indirectly or directly solve this problem? See problem-based learning Framework
Potential Community Partners:
People who run food pantries and soup kitchens, community gardeners, City or country food stamps administrators, Nutritionists, Health Care Workers, Social Housing Organizations, Local Shelters, Local Charities
GOOD HEALTH & WELL-BEING
The Mindfulness Project — How can I be “more aware” and engaged in the moment to higher my levels of self-compassions and lower levels of stress and anxiety? Mindful strategies are different for every person. Explore and test ways to connect with your thoughts and feelings – without judgement or distraction. Once you’ve developed a strategy that works for you, propose a plan of action on how you will incorporate your version of mindfulness into your everyday life. See Passion Project Framework
The Kindness Project — How can you spread and help to create a kindness revolution? Your job is to design, plan and implement a kindness project.
See Design Thinking Framework
Community Art Project — How can we build community through art? Art can change a person’s mood, bring people together, challenge the status quo, and deliver a provocative message. Decide what your community needs, then create an art project that will meet those needs. Discuss how art has shaped your community. How has art made a positive impact on other communities? Explore examples from around the world. What are some current issues that are prevalent in your community? What positive impact can you make on your community through art? Devise a plan of action. See Design Thinking Framework
Family Is— Find a unique way to tell your family's story. What is your "big idea" that will enlighten or leave your audience in awe? Students interview family members to gain their perspective on a variety of everyday issues. Or explore the history of your community, school or someone close to you instead. How can you present your family story in a creative and compelling way? See Mini Project Framework
Healthy Choices Project — How do the choices I make everyday affect my health? Inquiry Project Framework
Media Health Project — How does media affect your mental health? Interview or survey students at your school to do a deep dive on how media has affected their health. How can you improve media’s impact on mental health at your school? See Problem-based Learning Framework
The Mindfulness Project — How can I be "more aware" and engaged in the moment to higher my levels of self-compassions and lower levels of stress and anxiety? See Mini-Project Framework
Healthy Goals Project — What health goals can I make for myself that will improve my overall wellbeing?
My Training Program — Choose a specific system (Eg. Muscular, Skeletal, Respiratory etc.) important to you. Understand how this system works, and the problems that can occur in order to determine ways you can keep this system healthy. Explain why this system is important for good health. Design a training program to keep this system healthy. See Guided Inquiry Framework
Potential Community Partners:
Health/ Life Coaches, Mental Health Experts, Nutritionists, Health Care Workers, Dieticians , Therapists - Physical and Mental, Hospital, Fitness Center, Doctors
QUALITY EDUCATION
The COVID Classroom Project — Re-design your classroom so it follows proper physical distancing guidelines. How can you re-imagine the classroom space so that students are 2 meters apart at all times. See Design Thinking Project Framework
The Accessibility Project — How can we reimagine school to be more inclusive? Think about physical, academic and emotional inclusion. Redesign one aspect or element of your school to be more inclusive. How can we create a more equitable school system so students have access to learning tools? There is always room for improvement when supporting all learners and all abilities. Discover one area in which your school is lacking in. Empathize with your user to learn more about the problem and how you can design a tool or system to better support their school experience. Develop a product or system and test it on your users. See Design Thinking Project Framework
Student Agency Project — How can you restructure schools to give students more ownership of their learning? What decisions are your institution and teachers making for you that you can make for yourself? See Problem-based Learning Framework
The School Kindness Project — How can we improve student behaviour in school? Eg. Bullying, attitudes and behaviours. See Ted Talk Framework
Future-Ready School - How can you design a curriculum that ready's students for the modern workplace? Because of Globalization and growing technology, the job market is drastically different than it was a generation ago. As a result, there is a growing maker and re-skilling movement to support the local economy. What kind of education do you need to be skilled for the future of work (to stay relevant)? Design a curriculum for yourself that supports the skills you think you need to succeed. See Design Thinking Framework
Playmakers Challenge: Playground Redesign — How can you redesign our school playground or courtyard to be more inclusive and accessible? See Design Thinking Framework
Inclusive School Redesign — How can you make your school more physically, culturally or academically inclusive? What are some other ways you would like to see inclusion promoted in their classrooms? Read Edutopia's article for ideas: https://www.edutopia.org/article/creating-inclusive-classroom. What do you like or dislike about your school? What programs do you find successful? What would you change and why? Discuss school rules, class structure, subject areas, scheduling, class divisions, grading and community. Focus on an area of interest and propose methods to update or change. Provide reasoning to support your methods. See Design Thinking Framework
Potential Community Partners:
Administrators and Superintendents, Educators , Bullying and SEL Organizations, Parent Community , Teacher Training Universities, Local Architects, Curriculum Designers
AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
Clean Energy Project — How can we power schools with 100% clean energy? See Guided Inquiry Project Framework
Household Energy Project — How can you get your household to switch to clean power? See mini-project framework or Research & Experimental Design Framework
The Waste Project — How can we waste less energy in our day-to-day lives? How can you use data to reduce your impact on the environment? What statistics would you need to collect to track your daily, weekly and monthly carbon footprint? Once you have collected and organized this data, what can you learn from it? How will you adjust your lifestyle? Track your new footprint. How will you inform, educate or convince others to change their ways? Eg. Designing a Tracking App., Social Media Footprint Challenge Campaign etc. See Ted Talk Framework or See Research & Experimental Design Framework
Community Partners: lean Energy Organizations, Environmental Specialists, Hydro Company, Local University, Renewable Sources Organization, Local Green Consumer Challenges, Green Energy Inventors, Green Architects/ Engineers
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
SMART City Project — Understand how your city runs. How is your city powered? How does it reduce waste? Where does drinking water come from? How do people get around? What are the challenges? How does your city deal with a growing population? Focus on an aspect of your city that requires improvement. Use a medium of your choice to plan and design your city. Are there sustainable solutions in other cities that we can learn from? Select one: transportation, waste management, water supply, green space etc. to focus on. See Problem-based Learning Framework
The Urban Sprawl Project — How can we solve the problem of urban sprawl?
The Empty Lot Project — How can we repurpose an empty lot in our city for good? See Design Thinking Project Framework
The Transportation Project — How can we improve transportation in our city? How can we reduce emissions? How can we bring community together and encourage physical and mental health through transportation changes? See Guided Inquiry Project Framework
Connected Community Project - How do we reimagine a space in our city to promote more connected community activities? See Problem-based learning framework
My Nature Mission — Go to https://www.projectnoah.org/missions and find a mission that interests you or start your own. Explore your own backyards and local green spaces. Publish your favourite wildlife photographs of organisms in their natural habitat. Share these photos with the Project Noah global community. Whether sharing thoughts about a spotting, reflections on the moment, wildlife features or a species identification, your wildlife observations are entirely your own. See Guided Inquiry Framework
Community Partners: Architects, Engineers, City Planners, Expert in renewable sources, Waste Management Professionals (Land-fill, Recycling Programs)
CLIMATE ACTION
Impact on Earth – How do people and their practices impact the earth and its climate? Think about all the ways you have an effect on the environment in your daily life. Research how your actions impact the environment in the long term. What strikes you most? Focus on this behaviour and how you can change it. How will you convince others to change their behaviours too? Design an informative campaign for your community. How does our behaviour (locally) effect the global climate? See Problem-based learning framework
My Carbon Footprint Project - What actions can we perform to reduce our carbon footprint? Do you think climate change is important? Why should we save energy? What is your role in climate change and the impact you have? Make a list of your daily activities. How do these actions affect the climate? Choose 1 to focus on. How can you impart change or raise awareness around this issue. See Problem-based learning framework
Ocean Protection Project — Examine the health of the ocean, impact of pollution, plastics and climate change on local species and habitats. What coastal habitat is important to you? Why? How can we inform people about protecting coastal habitats? What is currently being done to help? How can you contribute in some small way? See Mini-Project Framework
Plant Phenolgy Project — Go to https://budburst.org/ and find a project with a mission that interests you or create your own. This website helps you answer important questions around the effects of climate change on plants and animals—and how we can mitigate those effects. Get your students to gather data on plant phenology and submit their phenolgy observations. See Research & Experimental Design or Scientific Problem-solving Framework
World Water Monitoring Challenge — Go to https://www.monitorwater.org/ and engage your students in a water challenge. Your students will be apart of a global youth movement to protect and restore our ocean planet. Activating/engaging youth is key to building a durable conservation movement that can move with the speed and audacity needed to transform the future, and EarthEcho International is at the forefront of that work. Have your students conduct basic monitoring of their local waterbodies and share their results. See Research & Experimental Design or Scientific Problem-solving Framework
Community Partners - NASA, WFF, Go Green Initiatives/ Organizations, Renewable Energy Companies, People that work in Agriculture, Scientists, Local University, Climate Action Project - Jane Goodall
RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
Consumer Project — How do my purchases affect the global economy? Do an inventory of the items in your fridge and your closet. Where do they come from? Where were they made? What do you actually use or consume? What goes to waste? What can I do day-to-day to consume and produce more responsibly? Why is it difficult to be a responsible consumer in today's day and age? See Guided Inquiry Framework.
Community Consumerism Project — How can we raise awareness about responsible consumption in our community? See Mini-Project Framework
Brainwashed - Are we being brainwashed? What does today's media say about consumerism? Examine advertisements that you come across every day on your phone, magazines, or on T.V. What persuasive strategies do they use to make you want to buy their product? How can you ignore the messages? How can you tell what messages are true? See Mini-Project Framework
Sustainable Package Project — How can we redesign a package to make it more sustainable? See Design Thinking Framework
Community Partners: Advertisement Companies, Sustainable Clothing companies, Local producers (Eg. grocers) , Grocery Stores, Landfill Workers, Power Companies, Packaging Companies
PEACE, JUSTICE, AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS
Journalist Project: Write a Wrong — How can you impart change in your community as an active journalist? In this project, you will choose a current affair or issue to research and document over inspiration from journalism projects like Out of Eden Walk and Circus Without Borders. Become an expert on the issue. How is the government involved in this issue? Develop your own position on the matter. You will need to make connections with people who are involved in the real world. With help from these mentors, create an action plan. See Ted Talk Framework or Guided Inquiry Framework
Social Participation Project — How does social participation lead to long-term changes politically and illegitimately, legally? Follow one issue in history that has changed in your community. See Guided Inquiry Framework
The Leadership Project - Who were the best leaders of the 20th century? What leadership skills do you possess? How can you use your leadership skills to do good? Go to https://bpmsnjhs.weebly.com/service-leadership-ideas.html for ideas. See Mini-Project Framework
My Civil Rights Hero Project — Research civil rights activists. Gain a better understanding of the stand they took and role they had. Who were the great leaders who rose to the call of justice and freedom? Tell their individual stories. Or, display a series of fictional memoirs from the perspective of someone who was affected by slavery using a medium of your choice. See Mini-Project Framework
Let’s Be Civilized Project — Is civilization and order necessary for survival? Why or why not? Determine the best aspects of the civilizations being studied (Mesopotamia, Egypt etc.) and design the perfect civilization based off your research. Identify critical characteristics, resources and habits, etc. Your choices should be defended with logical reasons (clear rationale), support with specific examples. How have ancient civilizations contributed to today’s society? What are those contributions/inventions? Why did the ancient civilizations decline and how might our lives be different had they survived? How can you positively impact your current community based on your findings? See Guided Inquiry Framework
Create a Public Policy — Understand the steps of policy making, choose 1 policy to research and plan your research. What is the exact information you need to find if you were to build a legal case in support of your policy. Understanding information you need to gather will help you form your own policy. See Mini-Project Framework
The Struggle For Equality — How does social participation lead to long term changes politically and ultimately, legally? Explore 3 movements to inform your answer: Women's Suffrage 1920's, Civil Rights in the 1960's, and Black Lives Matter of 2020's. How does an issue in the past compare to a modern day issue? Create your own public policy and begin research. For your final presentation of work, perhaps you can moderate a debate or write a position paper. See Guided Inquiry Framework
New Government Project — What are the strengths and limitations of different forms of government? Make sure your opinions are backed by examples and facts. If you were to create your own government, what would it look like? How would it operate? Back up your plans with reasoning. Propose your government to the class.
Every Voice Matters Project — How can we use our voices to affect change? There are many political issues prevalent in our world and our communities today. Choose an issue that is important to you to research (Eg. Fracking, immigration policy, physical distancing). What can you do to make a difference and affect change? Find examples of effective public speakers to better understand how they effectively reach their audience. Create a podcast, Zine, Social Media Campaign or other medium to get your message across. See Passion Project Framework
A Moving Story — Migration is a moving story and we all have a moving story. What is yours? Choose a group to follow in history (The Irish, Chinese, Syrians etc.) who have undergone a great migration. Follow their moving story. Life before migration, the journey itself and the adjustment afterwards. What actions can you take to build more inclusive societies? See Mini-Project Framework
Civic Action Project – Identify a public controversial problem that you are passionate about (could be in your school or community). Become an expert on the issue. How is government involved in this issue? Develop your own position on the matter. You will need to make connections with people who are involved in the real-world. With help from mentors, create an action plan towards a goal for change. See Passion Project Framework
Community Partners: Lawyers, Local Magazines/ Newspapers, Local Podcasts, Local humanitarian Organizations
Plan and manage your next student-centered project with ease using Spinndle’s PBL Software.
“Spinndle has helped with project planning by providing structure and organization. In particular, I appreciate the different frameworks provided when setting up a project. It has taken the difficulty of moving the plan in my head to a framework accessible to the students.”
“Spinndle is an ideal tool for me to track the progress of students through PBL. It helps students learn important organizational and time management skills, and allows for student self-pacing.”
