Workshops for Your School

MCIC’s Classroom Workshops are designed to be engaging and interactive, while providing students with meaningful appreciation of the Sustainable Development Goals (known as the SDGs) and why they matter. Choose from our continually growing selection of workshops below; each workshop is based on an SDG and takes roughly one hour.

Wondering how our Classroom Workshops work? Check out the short explainer video below!

For more detailed information about a workshop, we encourage you to review the workshop PDF or get in touch with us by email at youth@mcic.ca.

In-Person Workshops

Let us facilitate a workshop in your class!

How an In-Person Classroom Workshop Works:

Simply fill out the booking form with details about your class. We will be in touch promptly to confirm your workshop date and time and to discuss any specific requirements your class may have.

On the day of your workshop, a MCIC team member will meet you at your school with any and all necessary workshop equipment. The MCIC team member will provide: an introduction to the workshop and the SDGs, explanations of the workshop activities, debriefs on the key issues and encourage group discussions on lessons learned from the activities.

For questions, email youth@mcic.ca.

Available Classroom Workshops

• COMING SOON! Fast Fashion - The T-Shirt Board Game: A fun and educational board game that illustrates how clothing is used and discarded. This workshops aims to inspire students of all ages to reduce the environmental impact of our clothing choices.

• UPDATED Forced to Flee: In this simulation on decision-making during conflict and migration, students will work in groups representing families that are tasked with making decisions for the best future possible post-conflict.

• Amanzi, Access to Water: In this simulation game, students will learn about the current world water crisis. The role-playing scenarios will prompt students to consider their own current values and how they compare to others.

• Banana Webs: In this hands-on activity, students will learn about and explore the power of Fair Trade to farmers and agricultural workers. Students will compare the journey of a conventional banana to that of an organic/Fair Trade banana from farm to our homesfor an eye-opening experience.

• Breaking the Cycle: With a focus on the complex themes of poverty, associated barriers and a lack of access to health care and education, students will experience challenging money management decisions in this simulation and explore ways to improve the unfair system.

• Building a Good Life: This activity frames poverty as a “lack of opportunity” rather than a “lack of basic needs”, enabling students to see poverty in a new way and promote empathy over judgement. We ask, and explore, what it means to have a good quality of life.

  

• Understanding Child Labour: Students will learn about child labour, a rampant issue today both at home and abroad, including what it is, what are the causes and what are the effects of child labour through two activities. CLICK HERE to review the workshop handouts.

• Designing for the Future: With a focus on sustainability and inclusive communities, students will dive into a scenario to explore a community’s sustainability problems and work together to problem-solve and come up with possible solutions. Scenario topics include sustainable structures, protecting heritage & culture, inclusive communities, and effects of climate change.

• Interconnected: Students will be tasked with weighing the importance of our planets’ ecosystems, natural resources and humanity’s future needs in this board game style workshop. Every decision has a dollar cost and an ethical cost.

Virtual Workshops

For increased accessibility and to ensure that our workshops are available to as many Manitoba youth as possible, MCIC has several virtual workshops now available! If a virtual presentation is better suited to your classroom needs, we are more than happy to connect and engage with you and your students online. Please note, to provide the best possible virtual experience to students, some assistance and pre-planning will be required by the classroom teacher.

How a Virtual Workshop Works:

Simply fill out the booking form with details about your class. We will be in touch promptly to confirm your workshop date and time and to discuss any specific requirements your class may have. 

Prior to the workshop, MCIC will provide the classroom teacher with step-by-step instructions for printing and distributing materials to students and facilitating the workshop in class. Our Education Specialist and the classroom teacher will work together for the best possible experience!

During the workshop, the MCIC team member will connect remotely by video call. They will provide: an introduction to the workshop, explanations of the workshop activities, debriefs on the key issues and encourage group discussions on lessons learned from the activities. The in-classroom teacher will support by handing out the required materials and ensuring students are participating. After the workshop, in-classroom teachers will ensure any objects used are sanitized.

Available Virtual Workshops

• Global Poverty (zero contact): This workshop combines Building a Good Life and Breaking the Cycle, for a complete look at SDG 1. We will explore themes of equality vs. equity, basic needs, the poverty cycle and understanding the societal barriers associated with poverty.

• Understanding Child Labour (zero contact): Students will learn about child labour, a rampant issue today both at home and abroad, including what it is, what are the causes and what are the effects of child labour through two activities.

• Council of All Beings (zero contact): Working through a scenario based in Churchill, Manitoba, students will establish a "Council of All Beings” and take on various roles to discuss the human, environmental and social impacts of living with climate change.

• Banana Webs (minimal contact): In this hands-on activity, students will learn about and explore the power of Fair Trade to farmers and agricultural workers. Students will compare the journey of a conventional banana to that of an organic/Fair Trade banana from farm to our homes for an eye-opening experience.