Model United Nations Event
On Tuesday 18 March, three teams of students, accompanied by Ms Amy Lee and Ms Katie O’Connell, travelled to the Centre for Higher Education Studies in South Yarra to take part in a Model United Nations event. Model UN, as it is known, is an enrichment activity where students learn about how the United Nations works by participating in a simulation of a UN event. They are given the chance to practice and model the processes of amending and passing resolutions that will impact the UN’s member states. The focus this year was on “Planet Ocean: Protecting the World’s Oceans, Seas, and Marine Resources”.
There were three SASC teams taking part, representing South Africa (Kiet Nguyen, Richie Nguyen, Rony Lam, and Luke Downing), Brazil (Grace Murray, Martha Tremoulas, Isabella Borisovska, and Priscilla Rulinda) and Bangladesh (Joy Toue, Kyla Solomon, and Edward Iager). In the lead up to the event, all teams met several times to research and build their country profiles to ensure that they understood the decisions that each country would be likely to make and develop their knowledge of the core issues that they would be debating and discussing.
On the day itself, each team passionately presented their initial positions in front of the ‘General Assembly’, made up of the 30 different teams who were in attendance. After every country had presented their statements, the teams had the opportunity to present amendments to the proposed resolutions. Much like in real life, members of different teams visited the representatives from other countries to discuss their proposals, negotiate deals, and drum up support to have their resolutions and amendments passed. Finally, all of the amended resolutions were presented and voted on by the assembled countries.
Student Reflections:
“I strongly advise participating in the Model UN to develop important skills such as critical thinking, research, public speaking, negotiating, debating and collaboration. You might find these abilities useful in Year 12 or later on.” (Kyla Solomon, Year 12G)
“I enjoyed the debate between countries the most, it was interesting as well as fun.” (Joy Toue 12G)
“What I’ve enjoyed throughout Model United Nations is meeting numerous people from other schools to understand their perspectives from their countries, and also trying to find a goal to solve their issues about protecting maritime oceans.” (Richie Nguyen, Year 12E)
Ms Amy Lee – Learning Specialist | High Ability Practice Leader | English and Humanities Teacher
Year 11 History City excursion
The Year 11 Modern History class headed into the city on Thursday the 24th of April to participate in a research skills workshop at the State Library. The session was designed to complement the students’ upcoming historical inquiry research project and gave an insight into the many resources and databases available through the library that are not available via a simple Google search. It also reinforced the importance of evaluating sources and information for reliability and trustworthiness, which is such a vital skill for all of our students in this age of misinformation and disinformation. The group was also given a tour of the library, including the impressive domed reading room.
After a Japanese lunch served via robot came a History-related scavenger hunt around the CBD, in which students visited historical landmarks such as Chinatown, the Eight Hour Day Monument, Trades Hall, memorials to JFK and the Frontier Wars, and ‘met’ the statues of important historical figures Pastor Sir Doug and Lady Gladys Nicholls, Zelda D’Aprano and Sun Yat-Sen. Congratulations to Amirah, Harnoor, Sofia and Selina for their emphatic victory and for talking their way into Parliament House for extra points! Thanks, and well done to all students for being such wonderful and enthusiastic ambassadors for our school and for the Humanities.
Ms Katie O’Connell | Humanities Learning Area Leader
