With the SDG word cloud you can find out to which SDGs a certain lesson subject can be linked to. This way, you can make system thinking possible through SDGs. The SDGs are goals for the planet, a dynamic and complex system. That’s why system thinking is a very important condition to work on the SDGs. System thinking is a different way of looking at and thinking about reality. Instead of focusing on separate parts of a system, the focus with system thinking lies in discovering connections, interactions... to better understand complex systems.The SDGs are one and undividable. It’s impossible to achieve a goal without working on other goals, or, what can be positive for one goal might be negative for another. System thinking about the SDGs is therefore crucial to formulating policies, educating about these subjects and developing actions/activities.
You can download the SDG word cloud.
Goal:
Stimulate system thinking with the SDGs. The students and teachers discover that the lesson subjects are connected to the SDGs in different ways. They will see that the SDGs are closely connected.
When to use this tool?
Use the SDG word cloud to reflect with your students on SDGs after a lesson, activity or project: which keywords represent the essence of the lesson and to which SDGs are they connected?
How to get started?
Print out the blank SDG word cloud or project it on a (digital) board.
Write down the keywords from the lesson in the middle of the circle.
Connect all the keywords to the corresponding SDGs.
With different kinds of lines you can indicate how the keywords are connected to the SDGs:
- A full line: the word has a direct link to an SDG; the thickness of the line indicates how strong the connection is.
- A dotted line: the word has an indirect link to an SDG.
- With an arrow you can show the direction or order.
How to interpret the word cloud?
Once the word cloud is done and has the lines, you can discuss it. The following questions can help with that:
- How does the word cloud look? What does the word cloud remind you of? E.g. a spider web, a knot, a labyrinth ...
- Which SDGs got the most lines? Why?
- Which SDGs got no lines? Why is that? Can we find some more words for these SDGs?
- Did you find links that you weren’t expecting?
- What is the ratio between full lines and dotted lines?
- Why are there arrows drawn in certain directions?