RJ Stangherlin

Keystone Technology Integrator and STAR Discovery Educator

This site is for Mrs. Stangherlin's classes at Salisbury High School.

NAIMUN: Changing the World, One Issue at a Time

Why, you might wonder, would 28 Salisbury High School student delegates join 2850 students from 128 schools from around the world (mostly private/prep with unlimited funding and Model UN embedded into curricula) for 4 days of rigorous schedules and long sessions during Presidents’ Weekend.  Because they meet people from different backgrounds and cultures they would otherwise not meet, enjoy the spontaneous conversation, and collaborate on real-world issues that inspire them to try to change the world, one issue at a time.  Welcome to Georgetown University’s North American Invitational Model United Nations at the Hilton Washington in D.C. 

Our students participated on 10 of the 38 committees that examined the importance, idiosyncrasies, causes and effects of global issues like AIDS, the Kyoto Protocol, racism in FIFA, or any international situation.  Most of the major committees have two issues presented in the background guides.  Students write position papers responding to those two issues from their assigned country’s perspective.  Using parliamentary procedure, each committee decides which issue to bring to the floor.  Through the process of communicating with other countries, student delegates begin to gather allies with whom they can write and sponsor working papers that become resolutions with the goal of passing the resolutions.  Delegates gather allies by listening to people who speak on the floor or by writing notes to one another.  Once a resolution reaches the floor, the debate ensues, and delegates speak for or against the resolution until a vote is called for and passes or is killed in committee. 

The math on this project is staggering.

2 issues per committee + @6 resolutions per issue = 12 resolutions x 38 committees = 456 +/- resolutions = 4 days at NAIMUN. 

So is the mentoring.  An offshoot of Student Government, Model UN is one of the many activities that Miss Brinson sponsors through this organization. 

So is the real-world connection beyond the classroom, substantive conversation, extended writing, and construction of knowledge, the four standards for authentic social studies education.  If you are looking for exemplars of 21st century learning, you would be hard pressed to find a better model of student-centered, inquiry-based, collaborative learning. 

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